Study on the development of a South American space agency

The idea of establishing a South American Space Agency (SASA) is not new. There have been many discussions about this topic for a while, including an agreement by the South American Nations Union for its acronyms in Spanish UNASUR, to create such space agency. Roughly 10 years ago, Argentina was the first to propose this collaboration with a military orientation. As the ideas progressed, Brazil was proposed as an option to be its headquarters. However, not much support from the South American region has been given in both financial and logistical aspects. To this day such space agency or similar concept has not yet been established in the region. The Space Generation Advisory Council hosted the first South American Space Generation Workshop in Argentina in 2015, where one of the working groups was tasked to further investigate its feasibility, pros and cons, in implementing SASA. This paper presents an extension of the main findings from this working group where South American students and young professionals study and present a rational in favor of SASA, outlining possible solutions and structure that could be taken into account in its implementation. The work also outlines the main advantages and challenges in this implementation. Throughout the paper particular attention is paid to the question: Is it possible for countries in South America to establish such kind of cooperation to stimulate the development and application of capabilities in the space sector, which will allow undertaking missions far beyond the scope of what any single country in South America could do on its own? The existence of a South American Space Agency would allow access to a common orbital vector, which would lower costs, be accessible to all participating countries, and allow engaging with other emerging and established space agencies around the world.