Latin America’s Next Steps in Space
Latin America is accelerating its political interest and investment in space operations – albeit unevenly. While prospects for strategic competitiveness with more advanced economies remain low, the outlook for other uses of space, including for commercial, development, and analytical objectives, is positive.
In late 2019, the United States launched a new ‘Space Force’, a sister-branch to the US Air Force, focused on strengthening Washington’s military capabilities in the void above. In the two years that followed, three different billionaires - SpaceX’s Elon Musk, Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos, and Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson - launched their first crewed flights into space, with two of these businessmen personally taking part in their companies’ respective debuts. These consecutive, highly-publicised developments – all of which took place in the US – have reignited a global focus on strategic and commercial uses for space. In Latin America specifically, the excitement of off-planet opportunities, combined with the evident imbalance of technological progress in this sector, has rapidly motivated the region’s governments to reimagine their outer space commitments.
Historical Record
Generally speaking, Latin American space programmes have not had a particularly impressive history either in their output or in their ability to keep pace with wider advancements in technology. Peru, one of the larger economies of the region, took until 2013 to launch its own satellite into orbit and what was eventually deployed was a nanosatellite with extremely limited capacities. Colombia, an even larger economy, struggled until 2007 to launch its first satellite which, like its Peruvian counterpart, could boast only the most basic features of signal transmission.
Argentina, for its part, enjoyed a series of initial successes and milestones with its space programme, initiated in 1960, only for it to stagnate by the early 90s. Despite being one of the first countries to send a living being into space – the rodent ‘Belisario’ – and becoming one of the few states to commercially export aeronautical equipment, Argentina has struggled to add further landmarks to its space operations and has significantly degraded its regional lead.
Arguably the region’s most aeronautically successful country is Brazil, which has seen the most visible progress in its rocket development sector, a vital part of any future indigenous payload launches. The country benefits from one of the most ideal launch sites in the world, the Alcântara Space Centre, which has allowed it to enjoy significant foreign investment from US private and public sector firms. While the country remains far behind its North American partner, its geographic advantages and successful technological advancements leave it in a good place for further aeronautical growth.
VLS Pad Alcantara, in Brazil courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, 21 April 2021.
Operational Acceleration
With the spotlight returning to space operations, Latin America has begun to move. In February of last year, Brazil launched its first ever observational satellite fully developed, tested, and operated at home. Peru, meanwhile, has successfully launched a new satellite, PeruSat-1, which currently boasts the highest-resolution of any of its regional competitors. Although the product was developed by France’s AirBus Group, this technological feat remains important and helps Peru remain competitive in the region.
Among the most impressive long-term ambitions for aeronautical development comes from Chile which, after decades of being satisfied with only one functioning satellite, has begun a rapid enterprise to properly establish space capabilities. In May of 2021, Chile announced a series of important aeronautical measures for the coming years including the launching of ten new, small satellites, eight of which would be manufactured domestically, and the construction of three new monitoring stations in the far north, centre, and far south of the country. Finally, a new National Space Centre would be inaugurated in the capital, specialising in satellite production and aeronautical innovation. This three-pronged programme, which intends to rapidly establish its objectives by 2025, will significantly boost Santiago’s bid for full aeronautical autonomy.
Further north, progress takes a more regional form. Many Central American and Caribbean countries are simply too small to conduct space operations alone. Others, like Venezuela and Bolivia, are too economically troubled to afford individual projects or, in the case of Colombia, lack the necessary technological start point from which to rapidly advance in their initiatives. To amend this, eighteen regional states have signed a convention to establish the ‘Latin American and Caribbean Space Agency’ (ALCE), which includes important partners such as Mexico, Argentina, and Peru. Theoretically, ALCE is a logical, pragmatic step forward for the space ambitions of all its signatories, large or small. Nevertheless, past failures in regional coordination oblige one to reserve one’s excitement on this project until more time has passed.
Strategic and Commercial Outlook
Given the sheer scale of technological disparity between the United States and Latin America, current regional space ambitions should not be expected to provide anywhere near the level of aeronautical capacity needed to achieve some form of strategic balance with Washington. Nevertheless, the renewed focus on space operations has broad and highly positive implications for the region’s overall development and for its potential commercial opportunities.
Starting with development implications, the launching of satellites – big and small – provides important logistical support against natural disasters, allowing countries to formulate quicker responses to environmental risks. While such services have often been provided by foreign, friendly satellites, these are not sufficiently dedicated to the country in question and would fail to provide the constant surveillance needed for rapidly changing circumstances.
For agricultural behemoths like Brazil and Argentina, satellite imagery can lead to significant improvements in production efficiency, with orbital imaging providing detailed insights into crop yields and soil health. The wider economy, meanwhile, is poised to become better regulated as orbital surveillance increases – a point of special relevance in Latin America, where the state has historically failed to make itself present across its sovereign territory. By providing constant earth observations, satellites can monitor irregular behaviour at mining sites, logging sites, or other such locations, identifying and recording potential violations there.
Commercially, space operations offer significant improvements to the competitiveness of domestic companies by providing them with local partners and communications infrastructure. In the 21st century, reliable internet access has become a basic necessity for the population and this, for many rural or isolated communities, is often best provided with satellite technology. Not only does this improve the livelihoods of newly connected households by providing them with access to both essential and non-essential online services, but it also increases the customer base for precisely those online for-profit services. For governments, meanwhile, better connectivity of isolated communities provides more reliable economic and demographic data with which to formulate effective public policy.
For start-ups, meanwhile, a strong communications infrastructure supported by the relevant orbital technology allows for a more efficient establishment and delivery of its services. Take a taxi-hailing app like Uber or a geolocation game like Pokémon Go; with better GPS technology, local versions of these companies can provide more accurate information to its users. Additionally, local start-ups are likely to find better or more reliable rates with domestic satellite systems than with their foreign competitors.
Satellite monitoring and imagery has been used to analyse the scale and impact of Amazon fire season, image courtesy of NASA Earth, 24 August 2019
Forecasts
Despite the magnitude of the technological gap it must now cover, Latin America is nonetheless expected to make great progress in the direction of practical space infrastructure. Unsurprisingly, the protagonists of such progress will be the region’s largest economies: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Peru, yet these countries’ current aeronautical situations are by no means the same.
Among the most important advances to be observed across the region is a trend towards domestic manufacturing which is only expected to strengthen in line with technological advances. This positive development will improve Latin America’s overall scientific autonomy – an important factor in ambitions for greater economic development.
Finally, the commercial outlook is overwhelmingly positive, with local businesses expected to benefit considerably from the improvements in digital and communications infrastructure. Resource exploitation will become more regulated, thereby helping stabilise governance trends in the region, while the agricultural sector is set to receive a boost in its production efficiency from in-depth orbital observations.
Businesses and interested parties should remain vigilant of developments in this sector as they are expected to be important and highly beneficial to their operations.