Dominican Republic works on the creation of a space agency
The Government of the Dominican Republic is working on the creation of a space agency, the Specialized Corps of Airport Security and Civil Aviation (Cesac) announced.
The plans for the implementation of the new body will be developed by a council, still in formation, which will be made up of five ministries and several public and private institutions, according to a Cesac statement.
Among other projects, the space agency would be in charge of coordinating projects such as the launch of the first Dominican satellite, which is currently under construction by a team of researchers from the Santo Domingo Institute of Technology (Intec).
This satellite, whose launch is scheduled to take place in 2026 from Guyana, will be used to monitor sargassum in the Caribbean with high-resolution cameras. The objective of the project is to forecast the trajectory of the sargassum, to facilitate the collection of the algae before its arrival on the Dominican beaches, according to information from Intec.
Cesac explained in its statement that the Minister of Defense, Carlos Luciano Díaz Morfa, received a visit on Tuesday from the Dominican NASA space engineer Scarlin Hernández, along with other authorities, in order to exchange information for the creation of the agency. space.
This body would also represent the Caribbean country before the United Nations Office for Outer Affairs (Unoosa), which is responsible for promoting international cooperation in the use of space for peaceful purposes.
Among the institutions that will participate in the creation of the space agency are the ministries of the Presidency, Foreign Affairs, Defense, Economy, Planning and Development, and Higher Education, Science and Technology. Also the Air Force, Cesac, the Dominican Institutes of Civil Aviation (IDAC) and Communications (Indotel), among other public and private organizations.