It is a great pleasure to inform you that one of our scholars from Guatemala, Antonio José Ixtecoc, has been a member of the team at the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (UVG) designing and building the first satellite in Guatemala named “Quetzal 1” (Quetzal is the national bird as well es the name of the local currency of Guatemala).
The launch of this satellite took place successfully as planned on Friday, March 06, 2020, at 11.50 pm EST with the company “Space X”.
Now this satellite can start its fascinating mission to observe the development of Chlorophyll on oceans, coasts and lakes - with a special focus on Guatemala.
If you wish to see the historic moment of the launch, please use the following link:
https://www.spacex.com/news/2020/03/09/dragon-resupply-mission-crs-20-launch
In the name of the Foundation Board, Ricardo Cordero has expressed his admiration as follows: “We are very proud of Antonio; he is yet another brilliant example that higher education of talented youth can lead to outstanding achievements!”
Philippe Berberat sent the following message: "As the Local Committee of Guatemala we are very impressed by the great achievement of Antonio and the UVG team, pioneers in Guatemala in the design and manufacture of the first Quetzal 1 satellite. We are excited about its successful launch."
Finally, Antonio Ixtecoc has sent us the following message: "With much joy I have received your messages and I thank you for being aware of what has been one of the greatest achievements for science in Guatemala. Without you, my work in this project would not have been possible, so this achievement is also that of Fundación Educación. I thank you from the bottom of my heart."
We would like to share his gratitude with all our strategic partners and donors!
Antonio José was our first scholar at the UVG. He graduated as a mechatronics engineer in 2019 and afterwards worked in the Quetzal 1 team at UVG, especially on the EPS module "Electrical Power Subsystem" and the OBC "On Board Computer". He received numerous job offers and has been working for HCL Technologies in Guatemala since February 2020.
