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Aerospace Latin America: A History

2025 Seminar Series

Throughout 2025, the NASA History Office is presenting a seminar series on the topic of Aerospace Latin America. This series will explore the origins, evolution, and historical context of aerospace in the region since the dawn of the Space Age, touching on a broad range of topics including aerospace infrastructure development, space policy and law, Earth science applications, and much more.

This seminar series is part of a collaborative effort to gather insights and research that will conclude in an anthology of essays to be published as a NASA History Special Publication. Individual presentations will be held virtually bi-weekly or monthly.

Composite image of Earth and the Moon as seen by the Galileo spacecraft
During a gravity assist in 1992, the Galileo spacecraft took images of Earth and the Moon. Separate images were combined to generate this composite which features a view of the Pacific Ocean and Central and South America.
NASA/JPL/USGS

Upcoming Presentations

“A God’s Eye View: Aviators and the Re-Conquest of Latin America”

Pete Soland (University of Houston—Downtown)

Thursday, February 20 at 1pm CST

This talk scrutinizes the aviator-conquistador metaphor. It examines airplane pilots as personifying high modernism and the technological sublime in Latin America from the turn of the century through the early Space Age, when spaceships and astronauts eclipsed airplanes and aviators. Repeated invocations of the conquistador as a metaphor for the aviator’s social role–and the conquest as an analogy for the goals of aviation programs–illustrate how elites promoted their modernization initiatives to national publics.

"So Far from God, So Close to NASA"

Anne W. Johnson (Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City)

Thursday, March 6 at 1pm CST

Porfirio Díaz memorably lamented, ‘Poor Mexico, so far from God, so close to the United States.’ The ambivalence felt by many Mexicans toward its dominant northern neighbor also makes itself felt in the context of the space race. In this talk, Anne W. Johnson reflects on the role of NASA in diverse Mexican narratives about the human exploration of outer space, showing how the agency functions as a symbolic condensation of U.S. power and technology.

"The ALMA Telescope: How International Partnerships Transformed Astronomy in Latin America"

Rebecca Charbonneau (American Institute of Physics)

Thursday, April 3 at 1pm CST

By exploring the history of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) in northern Chile, this talk will provide a critical perspective on the intersections of science, geopolitics, and Latin America’s role in shaping global astronomy. It will examine how collaborative ventures like ALMA navigate longstanding asymmetries in global science, highlighting both the tensions and possibilities inherent in international scientific partnerships.

How to Attend

These presentations will be held via Microsoft Teams. For details on how to attend the meetings, join the NASA History mailing list to receive updates. Just send a blank email to history-join@lists.hq.nasa.gov to join. Alternatively, send us an email to receive a link for the next meeting.

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Last Updated
Feb 06, 2025

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