Space technology is the technology that counts: the arrival in space, the use and maintenance of different systems (vital, or experimental) during the stay in space or space flight and the return of people and things from space.





Space technology has multiple uses: from the very specific and related to very specialized fields of research to those that are perceived in everyday life such as checking the weather forecast, watching television through the satellite dish or using a GPS device.




Outer space, understood as the opposite of Earth, is an environment foreign to man and therefore requires appropriate techniques and knowledge. The new technologies originated and accelerated in their development thanks to space research, have had and still have important commercial applications. This has been considered by the defenders of space research as a point to assess in the face of investment by public administrations in space activities and programs. Opponents of space research believe that it would be cheaper to develop the same technologies directly, without spending on space research.





Likewise, in 1957, in Mexico they began to carry out research on the matter, specifically at the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí, where some physicists had information on the construction of rockets. The director of the university decided, with the aim of developing research and creativity in the students, to carry out the experiments in a golf course very close to the campus.


On December 28 of the same year, the first rocket weighing 8 kg and 1.70 m high was successfully launched. The second launch was made 4 months later, having a better design that included a parachute to facilitate the descent. It was intended to use these rockets to carry out studies on radiation at high altitudes.




Currently, various applications of daily use depend on technologies specifically developed for outer space: telecommunications satellites, telemetry satellites, etc. Initially these technologies were considered space technology, especially during the cold war and the subsequent space race, but the current wide use, much less oriented to the military environment, and the number of applications created, especially since the development of computers, make it difficult to consider them as such.