The Missão Centenário was born of an agreement between the

Brazilian Space Agency The Brazilian Space Agency ( pt, Agência Espacial Brasileira; AEB) is the civilian authority in Brazil responsible for the country's Space exploration, space program. It operates a spaceport at Centro de Lançamento de Alcântara, Alcântara, an ...

(AEB) and the

Roscosmos The State Space Corporation "Roscosmos" (russian: Государственная корпорация по космической деятельности «Роскосмос»), commonly known simply as Roscosmos (russian: Роскосмос) ...

on October 18, 2005. The main objective of this treaty would be to send the first Brazilian into space, Lt. Col. Aviator

Marcos Pontes Marcos Cesar Pontes (born 11 March 1963) is a Brazilian Air Force pilot, engineer, Agência Espacial Brasileira, AEB astronaut, politician and author. He became the first South American and the first Lusophone to go into space when he docked onto ...

. The name of the mission is a reference to the commemoration of the centenary of the first crewed flight of a Brazilian-designed aircraft, the

Santos-Dumont 14-bis The ''14-bis'' (french: Quatorze-bis), (), also known as ("bird of prey" in French), was a pioneer era, canard-style biplane designed and built by Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont. In 1906, near Paris, the ''14-bis'' made a m ...

, in Paris on October 23, 1906. The vehicle used for launching the mission was the Roscosmos

Soyuz TMA-8 Soyuz TMA-8 was a Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS) launched by a Soyuz FG launch vehicle. Crew Soyuz TMA-8 was a transport mission for portions of the International Space Station (ISS) ''Expedition 13'' crew. The flight d ...

spacecraft, and its launch took place on March 30, 2006 (11:30 p.m

Brasília time Time in Brazil is calculated using standard time, and the country (including its offshore islands) is divided into four standard time zones: UTC−02:00, UTC−03:00, UTC−04:00 and UTC−05:00. Time zones Fernando de Noronha time (UTC−02 ...

) at the

Baikonur Cosmodrome The Baikonur Cosmodrome ( kk, Байқоңыр ғарыш айлағы, translit=Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy, ; russian: Космодром Байконур, translit=Kosmodrom Baykonur, ) is a spaceport in an area of southern Kazakhstan leased to R ...

(

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

) to

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...

(ISS).

Bilateral agreement for the mission

The ''Missão Centenário'' was made possible by an commercial agreement signed in October 2005 between

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and Russia, with representatives of the

(AEB) and

. As a result, astronaut Marcos Cesar Pontes began training in Star City, a training center for cosmonauts near Moscow.

Launch

The

spacecraft carrying Lieutenant Colonel

was launched at 11:30 p.m. on March 30, 2006 (

, 8:30 p.m. in the morning of April 1, 2006 in Kazakhstan time) . Besides the Brazilian astronaut, the crew were the Russian Pavel Vinogradov and the American Jeffrey Williams, these two members of

Expedition 13 Expedition 13 was the 13th expedition to the International Space Station (ISS), and launched at 02:30 UTC on 30 March 2006. The expedition used the Soyuz TMA-8 spacecraft, which stayed at the station for the duration of the expedition for emerge ...

. When Pavel Vinagrodov hooked up the cabin video camera to Marcos Pontes during the launch, the Brazilian did not know what to say. He thought of waving, but that did not express what he felt, then he pointed to the flag and then up, meaning that they were all together, but he thought "wait a moment, pointing with one finger does not give the impression of 'together'!". So he pointed with two, as you can see in the video of the mission. The spacecraft docked with the

(ISS) in the early hours of Saturday, April 1. Prior to entry to the

, the international protocol included the following order: Pavel, Jeff and Marcos. But when Pavel noticed Marcos with the

Brazilian flag The national flag of Brazil ( pt, bandeira do Brasil), is a blue disc depicting a starry sky (which includes the Southern Cross) spanned by a curved band inscribed with the national motto "''Ordem e Progresso''" ("Order and Progress"), within a ...

in his hands, he told him to come in first. Marcos replied that they might have problems. To this, the Russian replied that it would not be Marcos who would be entering the front, but a whole nation, and neither he nor Jeff would have the right to enter before a nation.

Experiments

Lt. Col.

carried out eight scientific experiments at

ISS The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (J ...

, so that their behavior in a

microgravity environment The term micro-g environment (also μg, often referred to by the term microgravity) is more or less synonymous with the terms ''weightlessness'' and ''zero-g'', but emphasising that g-forces are never exactly zero—just very small (on the I ...

could be analyzed. Here are the experiments performed: The educational experiments from the list above were accompanied by students from schools in

São José dos Campos São José dos Campos (, meaning Saint Joseph of the Fields) is a major city and the seat of the Municipalities of Brazil, municipality of the same name in the state of São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Brazil. One of the leading industrial and res ...

through the Internet, while conducting the same experiments on ground.

Interviews

During his stay at ISS, Marcos Pontes conducted some interviews by video-conference. On April 3, 2006, an interview was broadcast in honour of

Santos Dumont Alberto Santos-Dumont ( Palmira, 20 July 1873 — Guarujá, 23 July 1932) was a Brazilian aeronaut, sportsman, inventor, and one of the few people to have contributed significantly to the early development of both lighter-than-air and heavier- ...

, in which Marcos Pontes used a

Panama hat A Panama hat, also known as an Ecuadorian hat, a jipijapa hat, or a toquilla straw hat, is a traditional brimmed straw hat of Ecuadorian origin. Traditionally, hats were made from the plaited leaves of the ''Carludovica palmata'' plant, known ...

like the inventor and a handkerchief with the acronym "SD".

Return

The

Soyuz TMA-7 Soyuz TMA-7 (russian: Союз ТМА-7) was a transport mission for portions of the International Space Station (ISS) ''Expedition 12'' crew launched October 1, 2005. The flight delivered ISS Commander William McArthur and ISS Flight Engineer ...

brought in the night of April 8, 2006, Brasilia time, the Ten. Col.

and two other astronauts from

Expedition 12 Expedition 12 (2005) was the 12th expedition to the International Space Station, launched from Kazakhstan using the Russian Soyuz TMA-7 spacecraft. The crew landed back in Kazakhstan on 8 April 2006 with the addition of the first Brazilian astrona ...

(Russian Valery Tokarev and American William McArthur) who were already on the ISS. The landing point was in

. For the rescue, 17 Russian MI-8

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

s were used, and the area of the landing was around the city Arclalic, within a

radius In classical geometry, a radius ( : radii) of a circle or sphere is any of the line segments from its center to its perimeter, and in more modern usage, it is also their length. The name comes from the latin ''radius'', meaning ray but also the ...

of 60 to 80 km away from it. After the return, the three astronauts underwent a period of readaptation to

gravity In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stro ...

Total duration of the mission

performed 155

orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as a p ...

s and the total duration of his mission was 9 days, 21 hours and 17 minutes.

Patch

The patch of the Missão Centenário was produced jointly by Secom, MCT and AEB.

Commemorative acts

As a celebration for this mission that was the first to bring a Brazilian astronaut into space, as well as being a tribute to the centenary of the first flight of an aircraft heavier than the air of Santos Dumont in Europe,

stamps Stamp or Stamps or Stamping may refer to: Official documents and related impressions * Postage stamp, used to indicate prepayment of fees for public mail * Ration stamp, indicating the right to rationed goods * Revenue stamp, used on documents to ...

and a medal were released.

Criticism

The mission was criticized by part the Brazilian scientific community, such as the

Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência (Portuguese for ''Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science'') is a Brazilian scientific society created in 1948 by several prominent scientists, with the aim of promoting science, culture and ...

(SBPC), according to which the money invested in the mission should be used to train staff as well as investing in other types of scientific research. In addition, they report the non-compliance of the Brazilian participation in the construction of the ISS. Other critics denounced the political use and crossed out the trip as

space tourism Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism. During the period from 2001 to 2009, seven space tourists made eight s ...

. The

and

rebuffed these criticisms, saying that the

space program A space program is an organized effort by a government or a company with a goal related to outer space. Lists of space programs include: * List of government space agencies * List of private spaceflight companies * List of human spaceflight prog ...

has never had so much visibility in the press, which would make it possible in the future to allocate more funds for space exploration. In addition, the mission may encourage children to study and pursue a scientific career."Marcos Pontes rebate críticas e defende missão brasileira" "07/04/2006"
/ref>

Gallery

File:Marcos Pontes at the Cosmonaut Hotel in Baikonur.jpg, Pontes signing the Baikonur Cosmodrome checkout hotel room, an Astronaut/Cosmonaut tradition File:Expedition 13 crew2.jpg, Marcos (center) with his crew members in the Soyuz factory File:Jsc2006e11926.jpg, Greeting guests while at Baikonur on launch day File:Train bringing the rocket to the launching area.jpg, Train bringing the rocket to the launching area File:SoyuzTMA8 Launch.jpg, Launch of Soyuz TMA-8 on March 30, 2006 File:Iss soyuztma8 launch sa 2.jpg, Pontes inside the Soyuz during launch to the ISS File:Abertura da escotilha da Estação Espacial Internacional e boas vindas à nova tripulação.webm, ISS Conference File:Marcos Pontes entrando na Estação Espacial.jpg, Hatch opening File:Soyuz_TMA-7_spacecraft_departs_from_the_ISS.jpg, Soyuz TMA-7 leaving the Station with the Brazilian astronaut File:Lula Marcos Pontes.JPG, President Lula during a video-conference with the Brazilian astronaut, Marcos Pontes. File:Soyuz TMA-7 landing site.jpg, Crew from

after landing with

File:Sérgio_Goudenzi.jpg, Speech by Sergio Gaudenzi during the launch of commemorative stamp and medal. File:Soyuz TMA-8 launch.jpg, Launch of the Soyuz TMA-8 with Jeffrey Williams,

Pavel Vinogradov Pavel Vladimirovich Vinogradov (russian: Павел Владимирович Виноградов; born 31 August 1953 in Magadan, USSR) is a cosmonaut and former commander of the International Space Station. As of January 2023, he has flown in ...

and

on March 30, 2006

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 2005 in Brazil 2006 in Brazil 2005 in Russia 2006 in Russia Space program of Brazil 2006 in spaceflight Astronautics Alberto Santos-Dumont International Space Station