Mexico’s Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN) has completed its eighth stratospheric mission with NASA, testing satellite technology designed to strengthen the country’s growing aerospace research capabilities.
The EMIDSS-8 experimental suborbital module flew aboard NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program during the FY26 Fall-FTS Campaign from Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
Test Flight STF #763 NT remained airborne for six hours over US territory, carrying EMIDSS-8 alongside several scientific experiments.
A key objective was validating the engineering model of IPN’s TEPEU-1 satellite, a 1U CubeSat intended to monitor space weather once deployed in orbit. The mission also tested electronic equipment for two CubeSat platforms.
The IPN team, led by Dr Mario Alberto Mendoza Bárcenas of the institution’s Center for Aerospace Development, developed and integrated EMIDSS-8 during 2026 in collaboration with the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology.
Before integration with NASA’s platform, the module underwent technical assessments covering electromagnetic compatibility, safety and mechanical performance. Researchers also used engineering models and simulations to prepare the payload for stratospheric conditions.
Additional experiments included the Trinidad V3 autonomous data and image acquisition system, the SARCAFÉ-BIO project investigating sargassum and coffee as natural reinforcements for biopolymers and a new generation of the Tecuitlatl II platform.
An ITESAT-1 engineering module from ITESO was also carried.
EMIDSS-8 is expected to return to Mexico by the end of 2026, when researchers will analyse the collected data for future aerospace projects. The results will support further satellite subsystem development across Mexican academic institutions nationwide.
