Final Countdown
by Helio Contreiras
Sao Paulo ISTOE, 29 May 96
Without foreign help, our
country is producing its own Satellite Launch Vehicle and
competing in the international marketplace.
Just when the telecommunications sector is being
opened up to domestic and foreign firms, Brazil is getting
its passport stamped for entry into the "space club." Our
country will literally share space with Russia, Ukraine,
the United States, China, the European Union, Japan,
Israel, and India.
On Wednesday the 22d, Air Force General Reginaldo Santos, director of the Aerospace Technical Center (CTA) in Sao Jose dos Campos, announced to ISTOE exclusively that production of the Brazilian Satellite Launch Vehicle (VLS) was underway. That had been the only thing the country needed to be able to place satellites in orbit for various purposes, examples being remote sensing and communications. Domestic satellites are currently limited to gathering earth data needed for monitoring the environment. "We will have a way to provide support for the telecommunications system and even subscription TV," Gen. Santos says. "With our VLS, we will be capable of selling transmission services."
For Brazil, production of the Satellite Launch Vehicle represents an undeniable technological victory as well as a tremendous economic gain. According to Gen. Santos, our country developed the satellite launcher by its own efforts, unlike the United States and Russia, which received technical help from Germany.
"This is an important victory and a fundamental one for communications," says Air Force General Hugo Paiva, considered the "father of the Brazilian space program." He points out that over the past 20 years, the United States and other nations in the First World have been putting up "obstacles" to prevent Brazil from having access to VLS technology. "That lack of help was not politically motivated," Gen. Santos explains. "What was at stake were interests in the international market."
In order for Brazil to launch its first satellite in 1993, it was necessary to spend $13 million to use an old U.S. B-52. "We have wasted time and spent more money because of the difficulties. On the other hand, we have made important technological gains," says Air Force Chief of Staff General Sergio Ferolla. Beginning next year, when the Brazilian VLS will be completed, that kind of expenditure will no longer be necessary. Our country intends to launch a second satellite before the end of this year to protect the Amazon Region and detect the occurrence of land clearing by burning in northern Brazil. The National Institute of Space Research (INPE) will call for international bids in connection with that launch.
The Ministry of Aeronautics expects, however, that once the VLS is in operation, Brazil will not only be spared the need to pay others to launch its satellites, but it will also compete in that market under favorable conditions. And in fact, there are reasons for its optimism. The Alcantara Space Center in Maranhao is close to the equator, making it easier to control a satellite's entry into orbit. That strategic location also makes possible a 25-percent savings in fuel between the ground and space. Only one other place on the planet enjoys the same geographic conditions, and that is Kourou in French Guiana.
According to Gen. Santos, Russia, China, Germany, and the United States have already expressed an interest in launching satellites from Alcantara. Minister of Science and Technology Jose Israel Vargas also has plans to launch a large Chinese-Brazilian satellite from China in 1997. It is good that those negotiations are progressing, because Brazil has invested $20 million per year in its space program since 1979, not to mention the cost of building the Alcantara Center.
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