The $75 billion IPO for Elon Musk’s SpaceX is just the latest sign of explosive growth in the global space industry, which is forecast to reach $1.8 trillion by 2035. Latin America, it turns out, has more to offer this boom than most people realize. Countries along the equator such as Ecuador, Brazil and Peru are among the most efficient and cost-effective places on Earth to launch satellites into orbit. In the Southern Cone, countries are already sought-after locations for ground observatories and some of them, like Argentina and Brazil, are producing their own satellites. The region’s potential has caught the eye of the world’s two superpowers, with the United States and China competing for influence on the ground.
Today on the podcast, we ask how Latin America can fully exploit its natural advantages, how the US-China rivalry is playing out across the region, and what governments and companies need to do to become protagonists, not just a battleground, in the burgeoning space economy.
Our guest is Laura Delgado López, senior fellow at the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy at Florida International University and a contributor to AQ’s latest issue.
Listen to this episode and subscribe to The Americas Quarterly Podcast on Apple, Spotify and other platforms
Guest:
Laura Delgado López is senior fellow at the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy at Florida International University
Host:
Brian Winter is editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly
If you would like to know more:
The Space Race Comes to Latin America by Juan Pablo Toro
Latin America Has a Space Agency. Now Comes the Hard Part by Cyntia Barrera
How Satellogic Is Trying to Reshape the Space Race by Horacio Aizpeolea
Brazil’s Landmark Satellite Program by Emilie Sweigart
Argentina’s Global Satellite Aspirations by Horacio Aizpeolea
Latin America’s Quest for Space Sovereignty
The region’s pursuit of autonomy in the growing space sector will be complicated. The U.S. can be an important partner.
