The El Salvador Aerospace institute (ESAI is the national space agency of El Salvador, began in 2012 and became a national agency on september 7, 2021.
History The ESAI was first start in early 2012 by Dr. Luis Alfaro, a philanthropist, politician who funded STEM programs around El Salvador universities, As a result of this the ESAI was gained recognition from international organizations like United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), University Space Engineering Consortium (UNISEC-GLOBAL), and European Space Agency (ESA). At that time, ESAI was just a small group of Salvadoran scientists from the STEM program with the plan to become the National space program of El Salvador. In 2016 ESAI launched the Global Aerospace program in which ESAI had it first successful launch. ESAI members were invited to participate in South Korean space program training. On September 7, 2021, the government of El Salvador had officially made ESAI the national space agency of El Salvador.
Programs
STEM program
The ESAI has many STEM programs all around El Salvador universities, mostly focusing on the progression on aerospace in El Salvador, some of these University are Catholic University of El Salvador (UNICAES), National University of El Salvador (UES), and Centroamerican University (UCA).
Weather ballons
The ESAI had begun a weather balloon program and had their first successful launch in December 2013 with program Esfera. The weather balloons were the beginning of the ESAI which gave the ESAI the credit and influence to become the national space agency of El Salvador.
Sounding rocket
In 2011 ESAI started program Torogoz to launch sounding rocket into the atmosphere to test ESAI rocket to see if they could make it to sub orbit, the launches happened in the locations of Barraciega test range, and Corral de mulas test range.
See also List of Government space agencies
List of space agencies
External links Official website of ESAI Reference