MEXICO CITY, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Mexico could launch satellites and other spacecraft into space if it builds a base on the Yucatan peninsula, which borders Belize along Mexico's Caribbean coast, Mexican astronaut Jose Hernandez Moreno said on Thursday.

    "The nation has the infrastructure needed to have its own space program, build and launch satellites and even have its own launch platform in Yucatan," Hernandez told journalist Carlos Loret de Maura in a televised interview on Thursday.

    The previous televised conversation between Loret and Hernandez,who was born in the United States but holds at the same time Mexican and U.S. citizenship, was in August from the International Space Station where he traveled to as part of a team sent by U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

    At a Wednesday ceremony at the presidential house Los Pinos honoring Hernandez, Mexican President Felipe Calderon said that Mexico's legislature was working on a space program and had already assigned 122 million pesos (9.38 million U.S. dollars) to space projects.

    In Latin America, Brazil and Costa Rica have well-known space programs. Costa Rica's program is led by Franklin Chang Diaz, a Costa Rican citizen who has traveled into space seven times with the NASA.

    Brazil currently operates two launch sites, in Barreira del Infierno and Alcantara.