AEM - Mexican Space Agency

The Agencia Espacial Mexicana (AEM, Mexican Space Agency) is Mexico's national civil space agency established in 2010 by presidential decree and headquartered in Mexico City. AEM is responsible for coordinating Mexico's national space policy, promoting scientific and technological development related to space, overseeing the use of Mexico's orbital satellite slots and radio frequency spectrum at the ITU, and representing Mexico in international space organizations including the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) and the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC).

Mexico has operated geostationary communication satellites since the Morelos series in 1985, followed by the Satélites Mexicanos (Satmex) Solidaridad and Satmex 6/8 commercial GEO telecommunications satellites serving Latin American broadcast and broadband markets. Satmex was privatized and eventually acquired by Eutelsat in 2014, with Mexico's orbital slots — strategically positioned to serve all of Latin America from geostationary arc positions — remaining under Mexican regulatory oversight. AEM works with the Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes (SCT) on spectrum and satellite policy.

In Earth observation, AEM manages and promotes the use of satellite remote sensing data for Mexican government agencies — CONAGUA for water resources and flood monitoring, CONAFOR for forest fire and deforestation tracking, SEGOB for border and disaster monitoring, and SEMAR for maritime surveillance. AEM coordinates Mexico's access to Copernicus/Sentinel data through ESA agreements and develops domestic EO processing capabilities.

AEM participates in the Latin American Space Agency discussions and bilateral cooperation agreements with NASA, ESA, JAXA, and Agencia Espacial Brasileira (AEB). Mexico's domestic space industry, including satellite equipment manufacturers and remote sensing service providers, participates in AEM's programs through the National Space Technology Development Plan. AEM has worked to establish Mexico as a hub for smallsat research through university programs at UNAM, CINVESTAV, and Tecnológico de Monterrey, whose student teams have flown CubeSats.