Alcântara is a Brazilian

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

in the state of

Maranhão Maranhão () is a state in Brazil. Located in the country's Northeast Region, it has a population of about 7 million and an area of . Clockwise from north, it borders on the Atlantic Ocean for 2,243 km and the states of Piauí, Tocantins a ...

. The city has a population of 22,112 (2020) and an area of 1458 km². The municipality is 30 km away from the state's

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...

, São Luís. Founded by French explorers in the 16th

century A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

, Alcântara was later conquered by the Portuguese, who used the small village as a base to take São Luís from the Dutch in 1646. The city was declared by the Brazilian government as a National Historical Patrimony. The city's economy is based mainly on tourism and fishing. The climate is favorable, characterized by two well-defined seasons: a rainy season from January to June, and a dry season from July to December. The annual average temperature is 26.5 °C, and the wind blows predominantly from the east at an average speed of 12 m/s. Helton da Silva Arruda, a famous Brazilian goalkeeper, was born in the city. The municipality contains a small part of the Baixada Maranhense Environmental Protection Area, a sustainable use conservation unit created in 1991 that has been a Ramsar Site since 2000.

Rocket Launch Center

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 program. It operates a spaceport at Alcântara, and a rocket launch site at Barreira do Inferno. It is ...

maintains a

launch site A spaceport or cosmodrome is a site for launching or receiving spacecraft, by analogy to a seaport for ships or an airport for aircraft. The word ''spaceport'', and even more so ''cosmodrome'', has traditionally been used for sites capable ...

in Alcântara. The Alcântara Launch Center is located in the historic city of Alcântara, close to city of Sao Luis, capital of the State of Maranhão. The geographic coordinates are 2°18′S and 44°22′W. The Launch Center comprises the Cyclone-4 Launch Site, under the responsibility of ACS, and a set of facilities under the responsibility of the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), and the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), which include general infrastructure and dedicated complexes for the launching of the Brazilian Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV). The overall infrastructure consists of an airport with a 2,600 meter-long runway, a Command and Control Sector equipped with telemetry, communication, meteorology, radar and electricity supply systems, and an Administrative center with hotels, a hospital and administrative buildings. The general infrastructure also includes roads, and a project for a seaport which is currently underway.

Technical Complex

The main components of the Cyclone-4 launch site are the Technical Complex and the Launch Complex. The Satellite Assembly Integration and Testing Building is located in the Technical Complex. This building has clean rooms for receiving, testing, fuelling and satellite integration to the launch vehicle payload unit. This building is connected to the Launch Vehicle Assembly, Integration and Testing Building, where the launch vehicle parts are received and tested, and the entire vehicle assembled. The integration of the payload unit, already with the satellite, to the launch vehicle is performed in this building. The Launch Complex receives the Cyclone-4 launch vehicle horizontally by a railway that connects the launch complex to the technical complex. The launch vehicle is tilted to the vertical position, and the final tests are performed automatically. The launch complex is designed so that the launch vehicle fuelling and launching are performed automatically, thus allowing a safe and reliable operation. On August 22, 2003, an

accident An accident is an unintended, normally unwanted event that was not directly caused by humans. The term ''accident'' implies that nobody should be blamed, but the event may have been caused by unrecognized or unaddressed risks. Most researche ...

occurred when a VLS-1 rocket accidentally exploded, killing 21 Brazilian technicians.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alcantara, Maranhao Populated coastal places in Maranhão Municipalities in Maranhão