Frank Braun on Brasil

Zheng He Revisited:Space Exploration and Sino-Brazilian Relations

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January 12, 2005

Brazilians in Space

Below is an article from the World Peace Herald about new directions in Brazil's space program. In the article they mention the Alcantara space station, which is located near my wife's hometown of São Luís, in the state of Maranhão.

Brazil gears up for commercial spaceport
By Frank Braun
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Published January 12, 2005

LOS ANGELES -- A remote site on the rugged Northeast coast of Brazil may become one of the world's first tourism spaceports, home to a fleet of sub-orbital rockets currently being developed by a handful of private space companies.

South America's largest nation is open to hearing business proposals put forth by the likes of Sir Richard Branson, perhaps the best known of the new space entrepreneurs seeking to become pioneers in the embryonic space tourism industry.

Sergio Gaudenzi, president of AEB, Brazil's space agency, said developing space tourism was among several recommendations emerging from a national conference held in Brasilia late last year to determine the country's future goals in space. The conference participants, who included senior government, congressional and industry officials, also recommended continued work on domestic satellite and launch capabilities, as well as major industry-funded infrastructure upgrades to the Alcantara launch center, Gaudenzi told United Press International in a telephone interview in late December.

So far, the Alcantara launch complex, located just 3 degrees south of the equator, is home only to one pad dedicated to launching satellites aboard Brazil's nationally developed VLS rocket. That launchpad is being rebuilt following the catastrophic explosion of the VLS in August 2003, which destroyed the tower and killed 21 space technicians. Luiz In?cio Lula da Silva, Brazil's president, has vowed to rebound from that tragedy, with a commitment to launch the VLS successfully no later than 2006.

In addition to lofting small satellites aboard its own rocket, Brazil also intends eventually to send up larger, geostationary satellites from Alcantara aboard the Ukrainian Cyclone-4 rocket. Last September, Brazil's Congress appropriated about $5 million in supplemental funding to "begin immediate engineering work" on infrastructure improvements at the facility to prepare for future launches of the Cyclone-4.

The funding fulfills a requirement of a memo of understanding between Brazil and Ukraine that was ratified by the Congress last year. The memo requires the Brazilian government to make improvements to the Alcantara complex, but the South American nation has even bigger plans for its launch center.

Along with becoming an international spaceport, AEB also wants to transform Alcantara into an aerospace center that would host a university campus and a complex of space museums.

"We want to create a great international space tourism and scientific center at Alcantara, with university campuses, labs, hotels and an ecological reserve," Gaudenzi said.

Gaudenzi, Brazil's top space official, said AEB would take the first steps toward these goals sometime this year, when Brazil's Congress votes on a proposal to open competitive bidding to private industry to invest in expanding the site's basic infrastructure, including roads, port facilities and electricity. It will take three to four years to complete the proposed infrastructure improvements, he said, but added that industry can start investing in the project within the next year and a half.

"We will also allow private companies to buy or rent land for development of their projects, including hotels," Gaudenzi said.

During the national space conference, Brazil also renewed its commitment to participate in the International Space Station, with a contribution of $10 million over the next four years, he said.

In 1997, Dan Goldin, who was NASA administrator at the time, and Luiz Gilvan Meyra Filho, who ran AEB, signed a memorandum of understanding that called on Brazil to contribute as much as $120 million worth of hardware over five years to the space station effort.

Brazil was to have provided six items, the primary one being an unpressurized logistics carrier known as an Express Pallet. The memo also gave Brazil the right to send an astronaut to conduct research aboard the orbiting laboratory, but a series of economic setbacks forced the country to scale back significantly on its original commitment. Then, in 2002, Brazil decided it could not provide the Express Pallet.

Gaudenzi said his agency will now propose a new agreement to NASA, in which Brazil would contribute one item, called Flight Support Equipment, valued at approximately $8 million. Embraer, Brazil's aerospace giant, was to have been the prime contractor for the original $120 million contribution, but most of that work would have gone to companies outside the country, a knowledgeable source, who wished to remain anonymous, told UPI. Under the new agreement, the full $8 million worth of work will now go to Brazilian industry.

Brazil's Congress, however, must first ratify the new space-station agreement before it goes into effect. The previous memo was not presented to the legislature for approval. Gaudenzi said he would take the ratified agreement with him to the United States later this year, when he hopes to meet with NASA's new administrator.

Since 1998, Brazil has invested over $2.5 million in the training of its own astronaut, Lt. Col. Marcos Pontes, who completed his training in Houston in 2000 and was scheduled to fly as a mission specialist in 2001 with the Express Pallet. When that program was canceled, Pontes remained in Houston awaiting a new flight assignment.

Space station construction has been on hold for two years due to the grounding of NASA's space shuttle fleet following the Feb. 1, 2003, shuttle Columbia disaster. In spite of its plans for a significantly reduced contribution, Brazil still hopes to exercise crew privileges aboard the space station, Gaudenzi said.

"This is important for us, for (Pontes) to fly. We want to participate, and his flight will also help to communicate the Brazilian space program to the Brazilian people," he said.

A budget to accomplish Brazil's new space program will be proposed at a meeting of the space agency's superior council Jan. 25 in Brasilia. Gaudenzi said $70 million to $80 million will be proposed for space expenditures in 2005, rising to $100 million in 2006.

The new plan supplants the previous National Plan for Space Activities, known as PNAE, which had been in place since 1979. That plan formed the basic blueprint for Brazil's current space program, including the domestic development of satellites, rockets and a national launch center.

Posted by Andrew at January 12, 2005 09:11 PM

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Analysis: Brazil's enrichment to go on

By Frank Braun
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

UPI - Date: Tuesday, June 28, 2005 4:55:20 PM EST

Brazil fully intends to continue its uranium enrichment program, with the goal of eventually mastering the entire nuclear fuel cycle, said Jose Dirceu, former head of Brazil's powerful Casa Civil ministry and ex-chief of staff to Brazil's president.
"Brazil is now in the position to master the complete nuclear fuel cycle for peaceful energy generation; it has the seventh largest Uranium reserve in the world, possesses two functioning nuclear reactors, and is developing (through a proprietary centrifuge design) a new technology for energy generation," Dirceu said in a recent interview with United Press International that took place before he resigned his top positions over a financial scandal.
Brazil is in the initial phases of its program to enrich uranium, says Odair Goncalves, president of Brazil's Atomic Energy Commission.
"We have successfully operated our pilot (uranium enrichment) plant at Aramar, which was fully licensed by the IAEA," Goncalves said. "Now we're building our first full scale production facility at Resende."
The IAEA refers to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
It was the plant at Resende, near Rio de Janeiro, that was featured in the world's newspapers last year when Brazilian authorities balked at allowing U.N. inspectors direct access to the plant's centrifuges, where the uranium is processed. The Brazilians claimed the centrifuges were proprietary technology they had spent nearly a billion dollars and many years to develop, and which they wanted to protect.
Goncalves believes Brazil has come up with cutting-edge technology on the centrifuges.
"Most centrifuge designs try to work it out so that at least one end of the centrifuge is not physically attached to an axle, (or is only magnetically attached) which cuts down on the friction of turning parts and thus on maintenance costs," he said.
"Generally this is achieved only at one point of the centrifuge. Brazil has managed to design a centrifuge where neither end is attached physically to an axle, where both ends are magnetically levitated. This is our proprietary design and we believe we are the only ones who have been able to achieve this."
Dirceu believes this technology represents a "strategic intellectual property" for the country.
In 2004, the Brazilians said while they would allow U.N. inspectors into the Resende facility, they would not let them see the actual centrifuges, which they placed behind a set of "panels."
That led to news stories that Brazil had denied IAEA inspectors access to its nuclear installations and might be hiding something about its nuclear program.
"We never denied access to our facility," Goncalves said. "In Aramar, our pilot plant (for uranium enrichment) we had the same panels in front of the centrifuges. And the inspectors had no problem with that. We had a facility that was under safeguards and that didn't have any problems.
"So when we started to construct the new Resende plant we did everything the same way, except the difference now was that Sept. 11 happened. After Sept 11, the IAEA came to us and said 'We are no longer happy with the idea of the centrifuges behind panels; we're going to have to reconsider this approach.'"
At some point, inspectors said they wanted to see inside the panels, according to Goncalves, and a discussion began about whether it was necessary to look behind the panels to guarantee there wasn't any diversion of uranium for "improper purposes."
Since that incident, Brazil has reached a partial agreement with the IAEA inspectors for inspection of the Resende experimental plant under construction, according to Goncalves.
"There are various phases in the negotiations over the safeguard inspections in Resende. We have already reached an agreement with the AIEA over the testing phase. The negotiations over the final procedures are in its 'final phase,'" he emphasized.
"We agreed and the inspectors agreed that they don't have to look inside the panels to verify that no uranium is being diverted."
Goncalves claims he is "confident" a final agreement will be reached with the IAEA over Resende.
"Everything is moving toward a rapid solution which is why you have not seen anything more in the press specifically about Resende," Goncalves said.
"It will be a matter of weeks or at the most a month now to resolve this."
Not everyone is so sanguine, however.
Speaking on PBS' "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," long-time arms control advocate Joe Cirincione said, "If we let Iran and Brazil get these technologies, many more countries might want it. And then you have a world where many more counties are on the very brink of nuclear weapons capability. That is too risky a situation to be able to tolerate. We've got to stop it here, we've got to stop it now."
Cirincione, the director of the Non-Proliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, claims "once you have a large functioning enrichment capability, it's just a matter of retooling it to turn it into a nuclear bomb factory."
Brazil's Goncalves scoffs at such comparisons with Iran.
"It's the think tanks who want to cite this (comparison) with Iran, but this parallel does not exist. At no time, and under no circumstances, did Brazil give any indication that there was anything irregular with our program. Iran, on the other hand, went explicitly outside the regulations.
"It's not just a question of wanting to enrich Uranium; it's a question of how they have behaved until now. Iran turned itself into the focus of the world's attention by conducting 'undeclared activities.' The inspectors actually found undeclared and highly enriched uranium where it was not supposed to be," he noted.
And from there, the controversy began, according to Goncalves. "The issue then became a matter of international politics."
The United States says Iran, in violation of its international treaty obligations, is using its civilian nuclear program to make weapons. Tehran denies the charge.
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(Second of four parts)
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Copyright 2005 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
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Analysis: Brazil's nuclear program

By Frank Braun
United Press International

Published 6/27/2005   3:55 PM

Brazil has yet to decide whether it will export uranium to China, or build more nuclear reactors despite recent reports in the Brazilian and international media.
Both decisions are to be resolved soon when Brazil releases a yearlong comprehensive report, the work of six ministries, which contains a revision of its nuclear program and plans for the future. That report, known as the Brazilian Nuclear Program, has been in the works since May 2004, after President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva's visit to China in 2004.
This time a report in Estado de Sao Paulo suggests Brazil made a commitment to a new and ambitious nuclear program, but according to a high official in Brazil's nuclear program, no final decisions have been reached on the proposed report, which has not yet been presented to, nor adopted by, Lula.
Although one of the scenarios envisioned by the new plan calls for building as many as seven new reactors, that is just one of many scenarios envisioned by the report, according to Odair Goncalves, president of Brazil's Atomic Energy Commission.
"The proposed plan is still being debated within the executive office of the president and within the affected ministries," he said, noting export of uranium is prohibited under Brazil's existing laws.
Brazil does face an imminent decision, however, on whether it will proceed with construction of its third nuclear reactor, Angra III.
Jose Dirceu, Lula's Chief of Staff, who favored proceeding with the project, recently had to quit over a financial scandal and his replacement is against building Angra III.
"Angra III can be resolved without approving the recommended new Brazilian nuclear program," Goncalves said. "However, if the Brazilian Nuclear Program is approved in the manner we have proposed, it certainly it will involve Angra III."
He added the new Brazilian nuclear program is more wide-ranging than the decision on Angra III.
The Atomic Energy Commission, known as CNEN, controls all nuclear material in Brazil and helps shape nuclear policy.
Last year's news reports that Brazil would export enriched uranium to China, along with an earlier incident involving the International Atomic Energy, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, has brought Brazil's nuclear program to the world's attention.
Goncalves called those stories inaccurate and misleading. He told United Press International of the actual events:
"While we were in China during the president's state visit, the Chinese indicated they wanted very much to import Uranium from us...they didn't much care at that point whether it was enriched or not. They're going to need a lot of uranium; they're planning to build at least 10 nuclear reactors. In fact they said that they would even come down to Brazil to help us mine for the uranium. We said that was not permitted by the Brazilian constitution and that Brazil was not considering the export of uranium. Those are the facts. I know because I was there at the negotiating table."
What happened next was someone from the highest levels of the Brazilian government (though not the Science and Technology Minister, nor Brazil's President) told reporters "Brazil is closing lots of deals with the Chinese...we are going to export lots of minerals to China ...we are going to export iron ore, soy beans and Uranium."
When that got out, it made the front pages of most of the world's newspapers.
"So, we had to go out of our way to say, 'no' we're not planning to do this, but all the attention that story generated led our president to ask for an inter-ministerial review of our nation's nuclear program and our plans for the future," Goncalves said. "The president himself wanted to know if we had a plan for the future (for our nuclear program). And so we embarked on this revision of Brazil's nuclear program. The China issue stimulated the revision, because it became evident in various branches of our government, that it was a big strategic and international issue."
During a recent interview with UPI, Dirceu, who was Lula's chief of staff at the time, confirmed Brazil was not involved in the international commerce of uranium, but indicated "an eventual reconsideration of that position depends upon the results of the wide-sweeping study of the Brazilian nuclear program which is currently under way."
Dirceu also said "a decision on Angra III will be taken by President Lula after an analysis is completed by the Council on National Energy Policy, which includes the participation of my ministry; the ministers of Mines & Energy, the Environment, Science & Technology, Planning, and Industry & Commerce, along with members of Brazil's scientific community."
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(First of four parts)
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Brazil in Space: A Ukrainian connection

By Frank Braun
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

Brasilia, Brazil, Sep. 20 (UPI) -- Part 1 of 5. Sergio Gaudenzi, president of AEB, Brazil's space agency, said his nation hopes to launch a Chinese-Brazilian satellite aboard a Ukrainian rocket from Brazil's Alcantara launch center sometime after 2007.
Brazil's National Congress has recently approved a commercial treaty signed by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Leonid Kuchma, the presidents, respectively, of Brazil and Ukraine. That agreement commits each nation to invest $50 million over the next three years for construction of a launchpad and launch facilities for the Ukrainian Cyclone-4 rocket.
"We are now just waiting for approval from Brazil's Senate in order to establish a joint-venture company and begin construction work on the facilities for the Cyclone-4 rocket," Gaudenzi said in a recent interview with United Press International at his office in Brasilia.
The Cyclone series and Yuzhnoye, the company that builds them, share a colorful and historic past. During the Cold War, Yuzhnoye's operations were shrouded in secrecy. It is based in Dnepropretrovsk, which did not even appear on any maps of the former Soviet Union because of its clandestine operations.
The company built most of the former Soviet Unions' massive arsenal of nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles. The Cyclone itself is a direct descendent of those missiles, including the SS-9 (Scarp) and SS-18 (Satan), of which the SS-18 continues to make up a good portion of Russia's remaining ICBM arsenal. The original Cyclone underwent a significant transformation to emerge as the Cyclone 2 and 3 rockets, which are capable of launching heavy satellites into orbit.
Today, Yuzhnoye is open for business, and that business is providing rockets that can launch commercial satellites into Earth orbit, for a fee running between $30 million and $80 million.
This is the global business Brazil has been seeking to tap into for years. Because Brazil offers an ideal launch site situated near the equator, and the Ukrainians offer a proven and reliable commercial rocket in the Cyclone, the two countries have decided to get together to tackle the highly competitive satellite-launch business.
The commercial agreement between Brazil and Ukraine caps a discussion about launching rockets from Brazil that was first introduced five years ago when the Italian company, Fiat-Avio, planned to invest $70 million to set up a joint-venture company with the Ukrainians to upgrade facilities at Alcantara, on the northern Atlantic coast in the state of state Maranhão -- and launch the Cyclone-4.
Fiat-Avio eventually pulled out of that agreement, however, at the insistence of the United States. At the time, U.S. officials expressed concerns about the transfer of sensitive and advanced ballistic missile technology to Brazil.
The possibility that some of Ukraine's ICBM technology would get into the hands of the Brazilian military via the country's space program raised serious worries. To assuage those worries, the Brazilians subsequently entered into a series of negotiations with the U.S. government to establish a Technology Safeguards Agreement, which would have ensured that dual-use missile technology would not find its way into Brazil's military programs.
Unfortunately, the Brazilian Congress did not ratify the TSA with the Americans. Legislators objected to certain provisions required by the United States, which they thought violated Brazil's sovereignty. Instead, the Congress approved what they considered to be a less-restrictive TSA with the Ukrainians. That, together with the recent approval of the commercial treaty, has laid the groundwork for the formation of the Alcantara-Cyclone-Space Joint Venture, a new Ukrainian-Brazilian company that will oversee launches of the Cyclone-4 from Brazil.
As yet, there has been no official U.S. reaction to adding a Chinese-Brazilian payload to that mixture. There could be concern about Chinese access to a previously unavailable equatorial launch site, and to Ukraine's advanced ballistic-missile technology.
The Brazilians and Chinese already have an existing program, under which they jointly designed and developed two remote sensing satellites -- CIBER 1 and CIBER 2. Both CIBERs have been launched from China aboard Chinese rockets. The CIBERS program, however, calls for development and launch of three additional satellites -- CIBERs 2B, 3 and 4. It is CIBER 4 the Brazilians hope to fly atop a Cyclone-4 rocket from Alcantara, which has remained unusable for some time.
Last year, Brazil's own experimental Veículo Lançador de Satélites, or VLS, rocket exploded on its launchpad at Alcantara, just three days before its scheduled liftoff. The premature ignition of one of the rocket's four boosters set off a disastrous chain of events. The 40 tons of solid fuel erupted into a massive fireball that not only destroyed the VLS, but also melted the base of the steel structure that enclosed the rocket, causing the entire launch tower to topple over. The accident killed 21 space technicians and destroyed two, Brazilian-designed research satellites.
Rebuilding the launch center and turning it into a commercial complex is one of the main priorities of Brazil's space program in the coming years, Gaudenzi said.
The other priority, he added -- which was established personally by President Lula following the disaster -- is "that the VLS will be launched before the end of 2006 and we are all working to fulfill that promise."
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Next: Brazil's Congress OKs immediate work on Cyclone-4 facilities at Alcantara
Frank Braun is an award-winning investigative journalist who specializes in covering the Brazilian space program. E-mail sciencemail@upi.com

Brazil in Space: Pushing to be a player

By Frank Braun
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

Brasilia, Brazil, Sep. 21 (UPI) -- Part 2 of 5. For years, Brazilians have aspired to possess one of the world's international commercial spaceports.
They have sought to do so by using their Alcantara launch center -- located near the equator on the Atlantic coast in the state of Maranhão -- not only to launch their own VLS rocket, but also the rockets and commercial payloads of other nations.
So far, Brazil's three attempts to launch from Alcantara have been unsuccessful -- including the third try last year, which resulted in a horrific explosion that killed 21 Brazilian space officials, destroyed the launchpad and dealt a severe setback to the space program.
Still, the tragedy only served to reinforce the commitment by Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to proceed with development of the VLS rocket and continue plans to expand the launch center.
During a memorial last year for the fallen space workers, President Lula promised the nation would launch a VLS before the end of 2006. Now, with the help of the Ukrainians, that dream may come true.
The Ukrainians not only will help the Brazilians with the development of their rocket, they also will play a central role in setting up the coveted international commercial spaceport.
Last week, Brazil's Senate voted to ratify an agreement between the two countries that opens the way for a joint-venture company -- called Cyclone-Alcantara Space -- to offer commercial launches of the Cyclone-4 rocket at Alcantara.
Immediately following ratification, Sergio Gaudenzi, president of AEB, Brazil's space agency, said Brazil and Ukraine "will begin work, even this year, on specific steps to accelerate procedures that permit the operations of the Ukrainian Cyclone-4 rocket from the Alcantara Launch Center by 2007."
Gaudenzi had announced the accelerated-development program for the Cyclone-4 during a meeting last Friday with Yuri Bogaievsky, Ukraine's ambassador to Brazil, and Olexander Serdyuk, chief of the international relations department of the National Space Agency of Ukraine.
Ratification also triggers the immediate availability of 15 million reals (about $5 million) in supplemental funding to begin work on infrastructure improvement at Alcantara to accommodate launches of the Ukrainian rocket.
Serdyuk talked about the joint project with the Brazilians during an exclusive interview recently in Brasilia with United Press International. He said Cyclone-Alcantara Space will be headquarted in Brazil and owned equally by INFRAERO, the Brazilian state company, and Yushnoye, the Ukrainian state company.
"Over the next three years, Brazil and the Ukraine will equally invest $105 million, through the (joint venture), to upgrade the facilities at Alcantara and to build a launchpad for the Cyclone-4 rocket," Serdyuk said.
"There are three phases to this joint program with the Brazilians," he continued. "First, the Ukraine commits its own financial resources to make the changes necessary to transform the Cyclone-3 into the more powerful Cyclone-4. So far, we ourselves have invested $20 million for those changes, and by the time we are through, we will have put in $90 million to create the Cyclone-4."
Seryduk said the adaptations included new avionics, a new faring or protective payload covering, automatic fuel-loading capabilities to avoid accidents and a new third stage for the rocket, which will allow the engine to be fired five separate times for precise satellite placement.
The second phase of the joint venture requires the Brazilians to make improvements to the Alcantaras site, including improving the roads, port facilities and other basic infrastructure.
The third phase will involve a $105 million investment to build the launch pad and processing facilities specific to the Cyclone-4, including installations for assembling, transporting and fueling the rocket, and a satellite assembly and integration facility.
"Although Cyclone-Alcantara Space will be established primarily to meet the needs of the space programs of Ukraine and Brazil, we also hope that it has a commercial return," Seryduk said. "Eventually, we will allow other countries to participate in this joint-venture; so far, Argentina has expressed an interest."
The Brazilians and Ukrainians plan to charge about $34 million for launching a payload of 12,000 pounds (5,500 kilograms) into low-Earth orbit, and $38 million to launch a 4,000-pound (1800-kg) payload into the higher, geosynchronous transfer orbit favored for larger telecommunications satellites.
"We have done initial market research, which indicates that even under the most pessimistic scenario of four launches a year, the program will pay for itself," Seryduk said.
Meanwhile, just as the Brazilian launch center prepares to open its doors for business, a privately financed program in the United States plans to build a rocket comparable to Cyclone-4 by 2005. That rocket, called the Falcon 5, will offer similar launches to its customers, but at a fraction of the cost.
Space Explorations Technologies, a private rocket firm established by internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, has already built its first rocket, Falcon 1, which is scheduled to launch a small satellite for the U.S. Department of Defense next January.
The larger Falcon 5 will be competing for the same international commercial customers the Brazilian/Ukrainian company is seeking. Both are looking to launch medium- to large-size satellites in roughly the same weight class.
The big difference will be price. Though Cyclone-Alcantara Space plans to charge between $34 and $38 million per launch, SpaceX, as the company is known, plans to offer Falcon 5 for about $12 million a flight.
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Next: Brazil's first astronaut talks about his first flight
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Frank Braun is an award-winning investigative journalist who specializes in covering the Brazilian space program. E-mail sciencemail@upi.com

Brazil in Space: Views from an astronaut

By Frank Braun
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

Brasilia, Brazil, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Part 3 of 5. Maj. Marcos Pontes, Brazil's first astronaut, has been trained and ready to fly to the International Space Station since the year 2000.
At the moment, however, there are no plans for the 41-year-old Pontes to get a crew assignment, despite the fact he had been scheduled to fly sometime in 2001.
The delay underscores the fundamental challenge that has dogged this developing nation's space program for many years -- lack of adequate funding. A recent report by a Brazilian-government-appointed legislative commission cited "lack of sufficient funding" for the country's space program as the "root cause" of the tragic rocket explosion that killed 21 space officials last year.
With a sophisticated satellite design and manufacturing facility, an ideally situated launch center, and its own rocket development program, Brazil's is considered one of the world's most advanced and ambitious space programs. But diminishing space budgets in recent years have impacted directly the nations' ability to fulfill its ambitions in space.
In 1997, during his visit to this South American country, President Bill Clinton signed an agreement that gave Brazil the right to send an astronaut aboard the space shuttle to the space station. But problems began in 1999, when Brazil's economy experienced a crisis and the government was forced to enact widespread budget cuts.
The budget cuts, required by the International Monetary Fund as a condition for a multi-billion dollar rescue package, delayed work on an item known as the Express Pallet, an instrument package that was to have provided accommodation for experiments outside of the station itself.
The arguments within cash-strapped Brazil in favor of contributing $120 million worth of equipment at the time was such an investment would create jobs and advance the technology base of the country's emerging aerospace industry. Later, when it was learned that most of the work was awarded to companies outside Brazil -- such as Boeing -- second thoughts arose.
As costs increased, and Brazil began falling in arrears on its payments to Boeing, the country began to reconsider the extent of its financial commitment to the station. Boeing's 1999 decision to close its office in Brazil, when the country payments on a $10 million contract became eight months and $3 million dollars late, also did not help matters.
The Express Pallet originally was scheduled to be completed in 2001 -- the same time Pontes was scheduled to fly.
After additional delays, Mucio Dias, president at the time of AEB, Brazil's space agency, decided the Express Pallet could not be provided on schedule, a move that required a renegotiating of Brazil's contribution to the station.
With a change of administrations and the entrance of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the country achieved a revised agreement to allow a more modest participation in the ISS project.
Sergio Gaudenzi, the current AEB President, admitted that his country's contributions have "gone down considerably."
"Originally, Brazil was to contribute six items to the ISS, valued at $120 million dollars," Gaudenzi told United Press International. "Now, under the new agreement, we are providing one item, known as the FSS, or Flight Support Equipment, valued at $8 million to $10 million, over four years."
Nevertheless, Gaudenzi expressed hope that "this reduction (in Brazil's contribution) does not place other astronauts in front of (Pontes) to fly, who are coming from countries that contribute more resources to the station."
Since 1998, when Pontes first visited NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Brazil has paid NASA about $2.5 million dollars for his training.
Pontes remains optimistic about his chances of flying eventually, aboard some spacecraft, to the orbiting space station.
Working with NASA's Office of External Relations, Pontes said he spends half of his time in Houston and the other half in Brazil. Now that he is finished with basic training, Pontes has moved on to advanced training in flying, robotics and extra-vehicular activities, or EVA -- spacewalking. In Brazil, he interacts with aerospace companies and research institutions participating in the station project, and helps to communicate the benefits of country's space program to the public.
Gaudenzi sees Pontes as a valuable tool for gaining public support for the Brazilian space program.
"We plan to utilize his help in communicating the benefits of our space program to our people -- to popularize our space program," he said.
Today, in Brazil, Pontes is treated as a celebrity. Even among the exclusive club of Brazilian Air Force fighter and test pilots -- there were only 12 in his squadron -- Pontes stood out, because was the only one with training in aeronautical engineering. Before becoming an astronaut, he was a test pilot who flew a variety of fighter jets. He spent a stint in Russia, flying the MiG-29 Fulcrum, when Brazil was considering the purchase of that aircraft for its fighter squadrons.
With the new agreement between NASA and AEB in place, Pontes said "the ball is now in the court of Brazil's Space Agency" to take the next step. That next step is for AEB to issue requests for competitive bids from Brazilian industry to build the FSS components.
Unlike the previous agreement, Pontes said the new accord stipulates that most of the work will be done by Brazilian companies.
"The parts that will be built within our budget will be manufactured by Brazilian industry and can also be utilized for other purposes, in other (space) vehicles," he said. "The primary reason for Brazil's participation in the space station now is to provide advantages and markets for our industry. I am emphasizing first the benefits this will provide to Brazilian companies. The flight should come as a consequence of that."
If all else fails, Pontes cited the example of his friend, the Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori, who attended the same 1998 NASA astronaut-training class. While awaiting his ride on the shuttle, Vittori flew to the ISS aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in April 2002 -- the product of an agreement among Russia's Rosaviakosmos, the Italian Space Agency, and the European Space Agency.
After his flight, Vittori returned to Houston to get back in line for his trip aboard the shuttle. In the meantime, he is scheduled for another Soyuz flight to the space station in April 2005.
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Frank Braun is an award-winning investigative journalist who specializes in covering the Brazilian space program. E-mail sciencemail@upi.com

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Brazil in Space: Gaudenzi plots a strategy

By Frank Braun
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

Brasilia, Brazil, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Part 4 of 5. Brazil will hold a national conference in November to re-consider the future of its space program, according to Sergio Gaudenzi, the president of AEB, Brazil's space agency.
"We plan to organize a national conference here in Brasilia to re-evaluate and perhaps even revise the Brazilian space program," Gaudenzi told United Press International in a recent interview. "We expect to have the full participation of the political, academic and industrial communities at this conference. We hope the appropriate congressional committees, such as the Science and Technology committees of the Assembly and the Senate, will also help craft our new plans for the future of Brazil's space program."
In the last few years, the space program has suffered a series of setbacks, culminating in the explosion of the VLS rocket in 2003 on the launch pad at the country's Alcantara facility, killing 21 people. A government-appointed legislative commission released a report last month citing "inadequate funding" as the fundamental cause of most of the program's problems, including the events leading to the catastrophic explosion.
According to the report, the lack of investments in new equipment, security measures and training of the personnel working in the space program led to the tragedy. Terezinha Fernandes, a member of the commission, also said low salaries at Alcantara forced many technicians and officials to work extra jobs to meet their own needs.
The commission's report specifically pointed out the dramatic reductions in the budgets allocated for AEB over the last few years. During its height, in 1992 thru 1994, the entire Brazilian space program received about $100 million a year. In 2002, however, the year before the accident, the budget plummeted to $15.3 million.
Last August, Gaudenzi proposed a 2005 budget for AEB of $36 million, more than double the current level.
"We just submitted a proposed budget for 2005 for Brazil's entire space program, including our space agency and the National Space Research Institute," he said. "It comes out to close to $100 million. The Congress, of course, has to approve this, but just this last July, the lower house of the Congress, the Assembly, voted to give our agency additional funds this year for work on the VLS and reconstruction of the launch pad for the VLS."
In July, the Assembly approved a one-time, additional outlay for this year of about $12 million for VLS development, accident recovery and initial preparations to launch the Ukrainian Cyclone-4 rocket, which is being done under a joint space agreement between the two countries. According to Gaudenzi, "$100 million, allocated annually, is the minimum that our space program requires for the continuity of our programs."
Prompted by questions within Brazilian society about the relevance of the space program -- known as the National Space Activities Program or PNAE -- originally established by the military government in the 1970s, space officials see this year's conference as an opportunity to involve larger segments of society in helping to set the course for the future.
In August, Gaudenzi established a working group to conduct a complete analysis of the current PNAE, covering 1998 to 2007, and to revise it for a new period, from 2005 to 2014. The working group, headed by Luiz Carlos Miranda, director of the NSRI, is made up of representatives from AEB; the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Science and Technology, Development and Industry and Foreign Commerce, and the Air Force Command, along with representatives from the scientific and industrial sectors.
The working group will have three months to go through a complete re-evaluation of the PNAE and present their findings in November at the conference, which will be open to the pubic.
Gaudenzi said the group has been charged specifically with evaluating the impact of current space projects on the nation's industrial policies, technological development and, most important, how it will benefit Brazilian society.
"I want to communicate the benefits of the Brazilian space program to the Brazilian public," Gaudenzi said. "Getting the support of the Brazilian public helps to guarantee the approval of the necessary funds for our budget. By the way, we expect to enlist the help of our Brazilian astronaut in this effort as well, since he is a great communicator and is viewed as a celebrity in our society."
In an earlier conversation with UPI, the astronaut, Maj. Marcos Pontes, indicated that the next two months are crucial in gaining public support for Brazil's involvement in the International Space Station -- one of the components of the PNAE.
The working group is considering whether Brazil should continue its ISS participation, and if so, at what level.
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Frank Braun is an award-winning investigative journalist who specializes in covering the Brazilian space program. E-mail sciencemail@upi.com

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Brazil in Space: Enlisting public support

By Frank Braun
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

Brasilia, Brazil, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- Part 5 of 5. Brazil does not want the world to misunderstand its space or nuclear programs, because both have only peaceful and civilian objectives in mind, according to Eduardo Campos, Brazil's Minister of Science and Technology.
"Since our space program was born during the years of military rule, we have to make sure that we make the transition to a fully civil program, with a focus on showing our society that it is just as important to predict the weather as it is to build a road," Campos told United Press International.
"Our main efforts at the moment are to show Brazilians the importance of our space program -- in other words, to popularize the space program, to demonstrate that a program such as CIBER (the joint China-Brazil remote-sensing satellite) is important, not just because Brazil becomes part of a select group of countries that can sell images, but also because we are able to use this program for our own national benefit -- to monitor weather, to monitor deforestation, etc. -- resources that return to the society's benefit."
A Brazilian delegation, including Campos and Sergio Gaudenzi, the president of AEB, Brazil's space agency, is scheduled to travel to China this month to sign agreements permitting worldwide sale of images from its CIBER-2 satellite, which was launched in 2003. According to estimates in the Brazilian press, the global market for remote-sensing images is growing at over 7 percent a year and in 2004 is worth about $1 billion in sales.
Campos also indicated that Brazil is determined to pursue development of its VLS national rocket program, despite previous failures and U.S. concerns about ballistic-missile, dual-use technology.
"The president has made a commitment to launch the VLS by 2006," Campos said, "and it is an important program to our nation. The United States shouldn't have any worries about the development of the VLS because they know the role that Brazil fulfills in the world and the responsibility that Brazil exercises with this program."
He called the United States "a great partner in the development of our intellectual capital in this regard," and added that the U.S. government "has technical cooperation with us in all the areas that you can imagine. They also know that Brazil has the conditions to have a program such as the VLS."
Campos went out of his way to emphasize that the United States and the world should also not be concerned about Brazil's nuclear program, despite a recent dispute concerning U.N. inspections of one of the country's uranium enrichment facilities.
According to Campos, the objectives of Brazil's nuclear and space programs are primarily in food and agriculture, human health, industry, water resource management, and in environmental monitoring, research and protection, "with due regard to safety."
"Brazil's nuclear program began in the same environment as the space program," Campos said, "but later it was established in our constitutional revision of 1989 that it was to be a program with pacifist ends. Brazil is one of the few nations in the world that has all of its installations -- civil and military -- licensed by all the international agencies. It is in our federal constitution that our nuclear program exists only for peaceful purposes."
Three years ago, Campos continued, Brazil experienced a serious energy crisis, which was overcome only with much difficulty.
"Today," he said, "we get 5 percent of our national energy from nuclear power, and 50 percent of the energy of the important states of Rio de Janeiro and Espirito Santo are provided by nuclear power. So, our objectives are to have a nuclear program which allows us no longer to live at the mercy of the energy shortages and blackouts that we encountered three years ago, and which were disastrous to our economy."
Campos said Brazil has adhered "very strongly" to international, nuclear non-proliferation agreements. "We have a leadership position in this regard as the U.S. Energy Secretary (Spencer Abraham) indicated recently. Our nuclear program will continue with the level of responsibility with which the world is familiar," he said.
The rest of the world should avoid confusing Brazil's nuclear program with that of other nations that have not demonstrated the same level of responsibility, he cautioned. "That wouldn't be fair."
Last week, Brazil reached an agreement with the United Nations to allow inspections of its uranium enrichment plant outside of Rio de Janeiro, although the limited inspections will not permit access to certain areas. The limitations are meant to protect the country's proprietary technology, according to the country's Ministry of Science and Technology
Campos said Brazilian officials currently are in discussions with the United States about a new Technology Safeguards Agreement, which would permit U.S. rockets or payloads with U.S. components -- such as satellites -- to be launched from Alcantara, the country's space facility. Brazil previously had signed a TSA with the United States, but the agreement was not ratified by the Brazilian Congress when objections were raised -- both in the legislature and the media -- that certain restrictions included in the agreement infringed upon the country's sovereignty.
"Concerning the TSA with the United States," Campos said, "there are ongoing discussions taking place with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Defense, with the goal of reaching a new version."
He said Brazil was trying to reach an agreement that meets the needs of both sides.
"I think that we will reach a new agreement with the Americans," he said. "The news ... about these meetings is very positive, very encouraging."
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Frank Braun is an award-winning investigative journalist who specializes in covering the Brazilian space program. E-mail sciencemail@upi.com

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Brazil signs space agreement with Russia

By Frank Braun
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

Los Angeles, CA, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Brazil and Russia are about to expand their cooperation in space, officials at AEB, the country's space agency, told United Press International.
Both countries plan to sign a memorandum of understanding during Russian President Vladimir Putin's scheduled visit to Brazil in late November. The memorandum calls for "the joint development and production of launch vehicles, the launch of geostationary satellites and the joint development and utilization of Brazil's Alcantara Launch Center," an AEB officials said.
In addition, during Putin's visit both countries are expected to finalize negotiations "on a financial package for the implementation of such joint projects," the official added.
Russian participation in the development of Brazil's rockets or utilization of Alcantara would mark a significant milestone in the global commercial space community. If "joint development and utilization" means the Russians plan to launch any of their rockets from Alcantara, that would be only the second time a Russian launcher would lift off from a spaceport other than Baikonur in Kazakhstan, or Plesetsk, both former Soviet launch centers currently utilized by the Russians.
Preliminary discussions concerning the memorandum took place in Moscow last week. Participants included Jose Alencar, Brazil's vice president; Mikhail Fradkov, the Russian prime minister; Sergio Gaudenzi, president of AEB, and Anatoliy Perminov, head of FKA, Russia's new Federal Space Agency.
FKA was created six months ago as a result of administrative reform in the country's space program, the newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda reported. Perminov formerly was first commander of Russia's Space Forces.
Brazilian space officials said the proposed memorandum expands two existing scientific agreements between the countries. The first agreement was called "The Cooperative Use and Research of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes" and the second was "Basic Cooperation in Science, Technology, and Technical Areas." The countries signed both agreements in November 1997.
Russia's direct involvement in Brazil's space program accelerated following the explosion of Brazil's VLS rocket at Alcantara in August 2003. At that time, Russian space officials were invited to participate in the investigation to determine the cause of the explosion, which killed 21.
Last September, AEB awarded a contract to the Russian firm KBTM "for specific technical assistance" in rebuilding the launch tower destroyed in the VLS explosion, according the Brazilian newspaper, Gazeta Mercantil. The newspaper reported the new VLS launch tower is "being built with the provision for the future use of liquid-fuel rocket propellants, advanced technology, which the Brazilians do not yet possess, but which is being studied with the Russians to be incorporated into one of the future versions of the Brazilian VLS rocket."
KBTM, otherwise known as the Transport Engineering Design Bureau, is part of FKA.
Signing the memorandum with the Brazilians will put the Russians just a few steps behind the Ukrainians, who already have established bilateral agreements with AEB for space cooperation. Such agreements are a necessary prerequisite for joint commercial space activities between the two countries.
Last month, Brazil's Congress approved a commercial treaty with Ukraine that paves the way for a joint-venture company to build launch facilities in Alcantara for the Ukrainian Cyclone-4 rocket.
In 2007, the Europeans and Russians plan to begin launching Russian Soyuz rockets from the European Space Agency's Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, just a few hundred miles north of Alcantara. Both launch centers are situated near the equator, making them the best global locations to launch telecommunications satellites.
In addition to building payload-integration and other facilities for lofting commercial satellites, the Russians and Europeans also plan to build installations that would allow sending human crews aboard their Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station from French Guiana.
According to ESA's Web site, "The (Soyuz) launch infrastructure has been designed to ensure that it can be smoothly adapted for human spaceflight, should this be decided upon."
---Frank Braun is an award-winning investigative journalist who specializes in covering the Brazilian space program. E-mail sciencemail@upi.com