El Salvador

SGAC El Salvador

Welcome to SGAC-El Salvador’s page!

National Points of Contact El Salvador

We want you to be part of El Salvador’s journey into space exploration and space industry!

SGAC El Salvador welcomes to you to have a look of our country’s effort to actively participate in the development of the new space era. Even though, El Salvador is very new to the space fields and yet we have much to accomplish; we have already witnessed the initial steps of passionate and talented students and young professionals – in cooperation with other countries and international agencies – who are leading different initiatives in order to place El Salvador as a spacefaring nation. El Salvador provides opportunities for young professionals, students and anyone interested to research, learn, share, and build relationships related to the space sector and its projects. SGAC serves as a networking platform to get in contact with other peers, professionals, agencies, institutions, project groups and international organizations interested in space related activities, as well as to foster projects, seminars/webinars, forums and research.

If you are interested and passionate about getting involved within space-related fields in general, SGAC El Salvador invites you to join our effort to get El Salvador into Space and to continue to thrive for the understanding of Space. We want to see a new generation of young Salvadoran space professionals, full of energy and bright ideas! The next greatest challenge for the human race is space exploration! Please continue reading about our national projects and how you can get involved, welcome this amazing journey!!

SGAC El Salvador invites you to continue reading in our next sections below and take a look at what young space professionals and university students have done in the past and are currently working on to bring El Salvador closer to space!

Join the El Salvador Mailing List

With the appointment of the two new Salvadoran National Points of Contact (NPoC’s) in 2020, the re-engagement of SGAC El Salvador has been consolidated. The NPoC’s primarily have two duties: One is to approach the Salvadoran students and recent graduates within the country and foster space related projects within the community, the other is to approach our diaspora of scientists and technologists within space related fields in order to encourage the new generation, foster involvement and learning about the different space activities worldwide. This international approach has been done already by past NPoC’s but it is now officially part of our working plan. Thanks to this strategy several ties have been created which strengthen international collaboration between research institutions, universities, companies and space agencies.

YOUNG SPACE ACTIVITIES OVERVIEW IN EL SALVADOR

NATIONAL HISTORY AND TRADITION OF SPACE

El Salvador has always been keen to research in aeronautics and astronautics since the time of our founding fathers in the early XIX^th Century. Due long periods of political instability and intermittent armed conflicts, our country had a halt with regards to all areas of scientific research, including aerospace. However, for the past 10 years, a group of young, ambitious and hardworking students, scholars, professionals and enthusiast both in El Salvador and outside out borders (our diaspora), have come forward with bold ideas, innovative projects, scientific research and engineering analysis in order to change the course of this hiatus.

Their dream is to develop the national infrastructure and academic backgrounds, foster scientific research, encourage anyone interested in space-related activities and motivate everyone towards space. In the spirit of this dream, several projects have been envisioned and created (some on their design phase, others complete) with the belief that accessing and using space, can represent a real opportunity for El Salvador to advance into new levels of technological, social and economic development. These projects include:

Project – Stratospheric Balloon – Consisted of launching several high-altitude balloons equipped with cameras and locally-made tracking systems. The first successful launch was realized in December, 2013. This project was sponsored by the Municipality of Nuevo Cuscatlán and required coordination with the Civil Aviation Authority of El Salvador (AAC) and the Central American Corporation of Air Navigation Services (CENAMER) in order to deviate air-traffic when the launches took places.

Project Torogoz – Sounding Rocket – The Torogoz Sounding Rocket Project was conceived in 2011 as a research program involving university students, government institutions and industry professionals. Its objective is to develop a series of civilian sounding rockets with increasing complexity and capability that sequentially expand our understanding of atmospheric and spaceflight further allowing us to develop tools, methodologies and infrastructure in order to ultimately launch a sounding rocket capable of reaching 121 km in a sub-orbital flight. The program which has been sponsored by the spaceflight start-up Salaverría Aerospace Company (SALAV) has been able to launch rockets up to 4.5 km above ground level.

Project Colibrí – Small UAV – The Colibrí Autonomous Aerial Vehicle Project aims to launch a semi-autonomous UAV from a non-typical high-altitude through a Helium-filled weather balloon, subsequently fly to a specific landing site autonomously and land through a parachute system. This project is still under development through University of Don Bosco (UDB).

Project SalSat (Cubesat) – This project aims to develop and place into orbit the first CubeSat small satellite developed by El Salvador. This project is currently in the design phase and looking for sponsorships.

In order to provide an umbrella organization to host all of these innovative projects, the El Salvador Aerospace Institute (ESAI-USA) – currently founded in the U.S.A. – was envisioned in 2012 as a think-tank and developer with the mission of “obtaining the capacity for developing and using aerospace assets to contribute to the national economy of El Salvador and improve the quality of life of its citizens.”

The future successes of projects like Torogoz, Colibrí and SalSat aim to foster interest in space-related activities and provide evidence of the multiple benefits of space science and technology through its role in the development of new industries, new employment opportunities and inherent scientific knowledge which can improve the life of our citizens and enhance the prosperity of our nation.

Stay in touch with us at SGAC El Salvador

We love Space!

By becoming a member of SGAC, young Salvadoran students and professionals contribute to the development of the Space industry in El Salvador, and at the same time, have access to a network of more than 13,000 members in more than 150 countries, and participate in events such as Workshops, Congresses, mentorships, scholarships, dedicated working groups and a variety of space Activities that will make their passion for Space to grow even higher.

PRESENT AND PAST SGAC SPACE-RELATED EVENTS IN EL SALVADOR

SGAC El Salvador aims to provide a strong communication channel and networking platform for Salvadoran students, young professionals and the SGAC family around the world, by promoting SGAC and country-organized activities related to the space-related fields. To achieve this goal, we are promoting the following activities for all students and young professionals interested in developing their professional careers in the space sector:

Water Rockets Project – Starting at Universidad Don Bosco as a Class project with Soda Plastic Bottles and developing into high altitude rockets. Step by step design evolution to higher pressure (150psi +) and higher altitude rockets with different material analysis and possibly automated launching modules. Introduction to Rocket Propulsive Systems and future Sounding Rockets.
Open Course: Introduction to Space Engineering (2020) – Starting from the 3^rd Edition of the Open Course, and a joint-effort between the NPoC’s of Panama, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and El Salvador, this initiative aims to provide students and young professionals the fundamentals of space engineering and related-technologies. The Course provides a broad spectrum of several space topics, it fosters the engagement of students in international project groups, short exams and in-class virtual activities. At the end of the course students must present their research. Awards are given to the best 3 teams within the course, and a certificate of completion as well as their grades achieved.
KARI International Space Training – Since 2016 onwards, members of the El Salvador Aerospace Institute (ESAI-USA) and our previous NPoC have successfully participated in the KARI International Space Training hosted by the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) in Daejeon, South Korea. Space Generation Advisory Council El Salvador is looking for new students and young professionals to attend the event in the future.
Workshops & Lectures (In person) – Through the years several workshops, lectures and exhibitions about space engineering have been presented by members of ESAI-USA in different events such as the United States Embassy in El Salvador’s“Space Month, 2013 & 2014”, Campus Party 2014, IEEE’s CONESCAPAN 2015, UDB’s “Semana de la Aeronautica 2013, 2014 & 2015”, UCA’s “II Congreso de Ingenieria y Arquitectura 2012” as well as many public and private schools and universities throughout the country.
Speaker of the Month Webinar Series (Virtual) – These are Monthly Webinars through Zoom Virtual Meetings where a renowned national or international professional in a particular Space-related field presents to students, young professionals, professors and experienced professionals an interesting topic or an interactive Workshop related to his or her expertise. National Points of Contact serve as moderators and at the end there is an open Question and Answer open discussion.
International Astronautical Congress – Members of ESAI-USA/SGAC have been participating as delegates and presented several technical papers in the 67^th International Astronautical Congress held in Guadalajara, Mexico. They have presented papers regarding Sounding Rocket Design and Creation as well as papers regarding the foundation of national NGO’s focused on Space Research.

SALVADORAN TALENT IN SPACE RELATED ACTIVITIES


Paul De León NASA – ARC	Bernando López JPL/CALTECH – NASA	Jorge Zapparoli LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION – JUNO	Luis Salaverría BOEING – SALAV	Jorge Navarro SpaceX	Juan Sequeira LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION