An invitation to witness the Ecuadorian Air Force (FAE), the Ecaudorian Civilian Space Agency (EXA), and the Netherlands company ISIS sign the contract needed to launch into orbit the first Ecuadorian satellite, NEE-01 PEGASUS, on board a Russian Dnepr RS20 launch vehicle operated by KOSMOTRAS from the Yasny cosmodrome on October 2012.
This Fall I had the privilege of presenting a paper at the 61st International Astronautical Congress, co-written with Commander Ronnie Nader (our Ecuadorian astronaut f
rom the Ecuadorian Civilian Space Agency – EXA), titled ―A Satellite in the Classroom: 2nd Grade Students Work with Real-Time Satellite Images‖. This annual event was an opportunity for space agencies and professionals worldwide to present their most recent accomplishments with one another, and consisted of a compilation of more than 3,000 scientists, engineers, heads of agencies, educators, outreach personnel and more; all of whom collaborated and networked with one another in the name of space exploration (see www.iac2010.cz). It was within this unique environment that Academia Cotopaxi, in partnership with EXA and its MINOTAUR/ HERMES-Delta internet gateway, had the opportunity to share how its second grade students have been able to track, download, analyze and share real-time satellite images...in essence, utilize a virtual ground station in the classroom! The paper was successfully presented during the first session, titled ―Lift off – Primary and Secondary Space Education‖; and for those who are interested, can be located at our class website: http://www.cotopaxi.k12.ec/SchoolSite/default.aspx?IdTab=284 (see Documents Folder at the bottom).
