Institutions, Academics Ally to Strengthen Space Sector

This week, foreign and Mexican institutions signed an agreement to strengthen Mexico’s space sector. Meanwhile, experts discussed the importance of betting on talent for the aerospace and space industries during these difficult times.

In international news, Boeing might miss an important deadline to certify the 737 Max 10, forcing it to undergo a more complex certification process.

Buckle up! This is the week in aerospace:

UNAM, AEM and NASA Refine AztechSat Project

The Mexican Space Agency (AEM), a decentralized agency of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT), announced that the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and the US’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reached an agreement to develop the "AztechSat Constellation" project. Read the full story here.

Boeing Might Not Certify 737 Max 10 Until 2023

Boeing might not meet the deadline to certify the 737 Max 10 in 2022, pushing its certification to the summer of 2023, according to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), reports Reuters. Boeing was asked to provide a “mature certification schedule” but the OEM has not offered a clear approval timeline. If the planemaker misses the 2022 deadline, it could be forced to revamp the plane’s crew alert system and institute separate pilot training, raising costs for airlines and putting orders at risk, as previously reported by MBN. The new regulations were implemented after two fatal 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019, which killed 346 people.

Nurturing Collaboration on Talent, the Way Forward in Aerospace

The pandemic had a severe impact on the survival of companies in the aerospace industry and many other economic sectors. “In the middle of all this, the education gap widened, resulting in two years of new talent with poor possibilities for job opportunities who then deviated their focus into any other possibility. Furthermore, senior, experienced associates found in these challenging times a chance to retire early, while others reached their retirement,” wrote Luis Carlos Ramírez López, President, Chihuahua Aerospace Cluster. Under these circumstances, the focus should be on talent development, retention and growth, he added. Read the full story here.

Radiography of the Mexican Aeronautical Higher-Education System

For every dollar invested in space telecommunications, Mexico will recover 60, according to the Mexican Space Agency’s (AEM) Space Activities Program 2020-2024. For that reason, industry, government and academia should collaborate on activities to promote the development space telecommunications, wrote Enrique Sosa, President, Universidad Aeronáutica en Queretaro (UNAQ). To achieve this goal, over 70 academics, researchers and executives created the “Strategic Agenda of Higher Education Institutions for the Aeronautical and Space Sectors 2030,” which aims to strengthen the higher-education system. Read the full story here.