Бразильское космическое агентство: история и современность.

Brazilian Space Agency

The Brazilian Space Agency (Agência Espacial Brasileira; AEB) is the civilian authority in Brazil responsible for the country's space program. It operates a spaceport at Alcântara, and a rocket launch site at Barreira do Inferno. It is the largest and most prominent space agency in Latin America. The Brazilian Space Agency is the institutional successor of Brazil's space program, which had been managed by the Brazilian military until its transfer to civilian control on 10 February 1994. It suffered a major setback in 2003, when a rocket explosion killed 21 technicians. Brazil successfully launched its first rocket into space, the VSB 30, on 23 October 2004 from the Alcântara Launch Center; several other successful launches have followed. Brazil was briefly a partner in the International Space Station, and in 2006, AEB astronaut Marcos Pontes became the first Brazilian and the first native Portuguese speaker to go into space, when he arrived at the ISS for a week. During his trip, Pontes carried out eight experiments selected by the Brazilian Space Agency, including testing flight dynamics of saw blades in zero gravity environments. In June 2021, the AEB signed the Artemis Accords to the joint exploration of the Moon and Mars from 2024 as part of the Artemis program.

The then president Jânio Quadros in 1960 established a commission that elaborated a national program for the space exploration. As a result of this work, in August 1961, the Organization Group of the National Commission of Space Activities (Portuguese: Grupo de Organização da Comissão Nacional de Atividades Espaciais) was formed, operating in São José dos Campos, in the state of São Paulo. Its researchers participated in international projects in the areas of astronomy, geodesy, geomagnetism, and meteorology. The GOCNAE was replaced in April 1971 by the Institute for Space Research, currently called the National Institute for Space Research (INPE). Since the creation of the then Technical Center of Aeronautics (CTA), the current Department of Aerospace Science and Technology (DCTA) of the Brazilian Air Force, in 1946, the country has been following the international progress in the aerospace sector. With the creation of the Technological Institute of Aeronautics (ITA), a fully qualified institution was formed to train highly qualified human resources in areas of state of the art technology. The DCTA, through the ITA and the Institute of Aeronautics and Space (IAE), play a key role in the consolidation of the Brazilian space program. In the early 1970s, the Brazilian Space Activities Commission (COBAE) was created a body linked to the then General Staff of the Armed Forces (EMFA) to coordinate and monitor the implementation of the space program. This coordinating role, in February 1994, was transferred to the Brazilian Space Agency. The creation of the AEB represents a change in government orientation by establishing a central coordinating body for the space program, reporting directly to the Presidency of the Republic. In 2011, Argentina's defense minister, Arturo Puricelli, made a proposal to the Brazilian minister, Celso Amorim, for the creation of a unified South American space agency by the year 2025, according to the European Space Agency. In 2015, however, the Brazilian Space Agency and the Ministry of Defense rejected the Argentine proposal "because it understood that it would be an organ that would yield a lot of bureaucracy and few results like the 'confederation' proposed by the United States and never came to anything" and also because, according to the agency's adviser: "A regional space agency would reverberate in the Brazilian pocket that, due to its territorial size, would end up getting most of the invoice to pay."

The Alcântara Launch Center (Centro de Lançamento de Alcântara; CLA) is the main launch site and operational center of the Brazilian Space Agency. It is located in the peninsula of Alcântara, in the state of Maranhão. This region presents some excellent requirements, such as low population density, excellent security conditions and easiness of aerial and maritime access. It is located in the city of Parnamirim, in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. It is primarily used to launch sounding rockets and to support the Alcântara Launch Center.

Brazil has forged a cooperative arrangement with Germany to develop a dedicated micro satellite launch vehicle. As a result, the VLM "Veiculo Lançador de Microsatelites" (Microsatellite Launch Vehicle) based on the S50 rocket engine is being studied, with the objective of orbiting satellites up to 150 kg in circular orbits ranging from 250 to 700 km. The first qualifying and test flight will be on 2022 from the Alcântara Space Center. The second flight is scheduled for the following years as part of the SHEFEX mission, to be conducted also from Alcântara, in partnership with the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

The VLS Satellite Launch Vehicle (Veículo Lançador de Satélites) was the Brazilian Space Agency's main satellite launch vehicle. It is a four stage rocket composed of a core and four strap on motors. The vehicle's first stage has four solid fuel motors derived from the Sonda sounding rockets. After subsequent delays, the project was cancelled in 2016.

The Brazilian Space Agency was developing a new family of launch vehicles in cooperation with the Russian Federal Space Agency. The five rockets of the Southern Cross family will be based on Russia's Angara vehicle and liquid propellant engines. Hence the names of the future launch vehicles: by a VSB 30 rocket, reaching to 100,000 feet of altitude and a maximum speed of Mach 10.

Marcos Pontes, a lieutenant colonel in the Brazilian Air Force, is an astronaut of the Brazilian Space Agency. Pontes was the first Brazilian astronaut, having launched with the Expedition 13 crew from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 29, 2006, aboard a Soyuz TMA spacecraft. Pontes docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on March 31, 2006, where he lived and worked for 9 days. which is part of the Brazilian Air Force. The command is responsible for planning, coordinating, executing and controlling the country's air and space operations. The Brazilian Navy and Brazilian Army also are part of the organization.

The Space Operations Center (Portuguese: Centro de Operações Espaciais, acronym COPE) is a facility established in 2020 subordinated to the Aerospace Operations Command, with the objective of operating and supervising the Brazilian satellites.

The Bingo radio telescope called Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from Integrated Neutral Gas Observations, is a project coordinated by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Brazilian Space Agency, National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and international partners from Europe and China. The telescope will consist of two giant dishes, with 40 meters of diameter each, which will receive radiation from the space and project their spectrum in a series of metal detectors, called horns. Bingo will perform its detections in the radio band in the range of 960 to 1260 MHZ. 80% of the Bingo parts came from the Brazilian industry. Among the most successful space cooperation projects were the development and launch of earth monitoring satellites. The agreement for the design, development, operation and use of Brazilian developed flight equipment and payloads for the Space Station was signed in 1997. However, as a compromise, NASA have funded small Brazilian made components for the Express Logistics Carrier 2 for the ISS, which were installed in 2009.

On October 21, 2003, the Brazilian Space Agency and the State Space Agency of Ukraine established a cooperation agreement creating a joint venture space enterprise called Alcântara Cyclone Space. The new company will focus on launching satellites from the Alcântara Launch Center using the Tsyklon 4 rocket. The company will invest $160 million dollars in infrastructure for the new launch pad that will be constructed at the Alcântara Launch Center. In March 2009, the Brazilian Government increased its financial capital by US$ 50 million. The first launch was planned for 2014 from the Alcantara Launch Center. Brazil pulled out of the program in 2015.

On November 8, 2010, National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) signed a Letter of Intent regarding the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD+) program. Examples of the cooperation include the monitoring of illegal logging in the Amazon rainforest utilizing data from JAXA's ALOS satellite. Both Brazil and Japan are members of the Global Precipitation Measurement project.

On 21 October 2020, Brazil was invited by the United States to join NASA's Artemis Space Program. On 15 June 2021, the country officially joined the program by signing the Artemis Accords with the U. S. and international partners, for the joint exploration of the Moon from 2024 and Mars and beyond in 2030s. The roles of Brazil include the development of a national lunar robot for the use in the future missions. aiming to help with common challenges for the mankind such as the climate change, major disasters and environmental protection. Ground stations located in Cuiabá in Brazil, Moscow Region in Russia, Shadnagar–Hyderabad in India, Sanya in China and Hartebeesthoek in South Africa will receive data from the satellite constellation.