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This article is adapted from AQ’s special report | Leer en español | Ler em português
GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador—Why would Ecuador, of all places, be a focus in Latin America’s new space race? Well, the answer is in the country’s name.
On a recent afternoon, Robert Aillón and his colleagues were seated at a table in a chain hotel restaurant in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s business capital, radiating enthusiasm for their proposed project: a new private spaceport for vertical launches and horizontal vehicle recovery at one of three potential sites nearby.
Some foreign investors regard Ecuador with caution at a moment when organized crime groups are battling for control of the country’s seaports, key transit hubs for cocaine bound for Europe and Asia. But for Aillón and his partners, the Guayaquil area is strategic for a different reason: It sits just two degrees south of the imaginary line dividing the world into two hemispheres.
