The Brazilian Space Program took another important step, last weekend, with the launch of the South Korean rocket HANBIT-TLV, from the Alcântara Launch Center (CLA). According to the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), this was the 500th launch from the base installed in Maranhão. “The vehicle took on board a payload developed 100% in Brazil in a flight that lasted 4 minutes and 33 seconds”, informed, in a note, the FAB. Named Astrolábio, the operation is the result of a partnership between the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology (DCTA) and the South Korean company Innospace. “This launch broke a paradigm, as we will be able to have several commercial operations, from the Alcântara Space Center (CEA), placing us among the space centers recognized worldwide and inserted in such a large market and that develops more every day, which is the space market”, explained the general director of the DCTA, Lieutenant-Brigadier of the Air Maurício Augusto Silveira de Medeiros. According to him, the launch of the rocket, as well as the partnerships, will result in a “series of benefits, as they are revenues that come to the municipality of Alcântara, to the state of Maranhão and to Brazil”. Through the FAB note, the head of the Technical Subdepartment of the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology (DCTA), Brigadier Engineer Luciano Valentim Rechiuti, said that Operation Astrolábio demonstrates the national capacity to develop space technologies and launch rockets. “The success of this binational launch confirms that the center is fully capable, both from a technical-operational point of view and from an administrative point of view, to carry out launches of national and foreign rockets at practically any time of the year, with precision and safety” , he said. The president of the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), Carlos Augusto Teixeira de Moura, said that the CLA was already conceived with the idea of housing not only our Space Program, but also other operators. “We have achieved the ideal back in the 1980s, as we now have a private international operator working here, which opens up the opportunity for Brazil to effectively enter the international space transport market”, he argued.
Agência Brasil
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