Mexicans in Space

At first, I thought it was a hoax. The idea of a Mexican space program sounded like something from ScrappleFace or FARK. Apparently not.

From Reuters.com:

Mexican lawmakers are preparing to launch a national space agency they hope could one day stand tall beside the United States' NASA.

Mexico's lower house passed a law on Wednesday, which if approved by the upper chamber, would create a space agency to coordinate research and work with universities and the private sector to launch communication and weather satellites.

The proposed budget to kick off the Mexican Space Agency is less than $2 million. Nonetheless, there's hope that they will someday challenge NASA.

"We'd love it to become the Mexican NASA, but obviously the levels of investment are incomparable. It's very distant, perhaps not in the vision but in resources," a spokesman for the Mexican Congress's Science and Technology Commission, which drew up the law, said on Thursday.

Undoubtedly, for a Mexican space program to become reality, a monumental commitment will be required on the part of the government and the hard-working and dedicated citizens of Mexico. It likely won't be forthcoming in the near future since, based upon the latest media reports, all the hard-working, dedicated Mexicans are in, or on their way to, the United States.

Companion post at Diggers Realm.