SCIENCE-BRAZIL: Failed Space Rocket Defers Market-Access Dreams

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 13 1999 (IPS) - Brazil failed again in its attempt to launch a satellite with nationally-made rockets, postponing the country’s dream of joining the select group of nations that dominate the world aerospace market.

The Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) lifted off Saturday from Alcántara base in northern Brazil, but three and a half minutes later, problems were detected in one of its engines and officials had to destroy it, redirecting it to crash-land in safety in the Atlantic Ocean.

Along with the rocket, Brazil lost its second Scientific Applications Satellite (SACI-2), which was to carry out four space experiments and collect data for several research projects.

The first satellite, SACI-1, was already lost. It was placed in orbit Oct 14 by a Chinese launcher, along with a Chinese-Brazilian satellite to track land resources, but the SACI-1 never established communications with its bases on earth.

The two satellites, both manufactured entirely in Brazil, represent 6.3 million dollars in losses for the programme known as the Brazilian Complete Space Mission.

But the greatest frustration comes from the satellite launch vehicle setbacks. The first launch of the SLV, in Nov 1997, failed due to a similar defect, and was also followed by the destruction of the rocket and the data-collecting satellite it carried.

These accidents will not interrupt the programme, assure its leaders, including the recent operation’s director, Tiago Ribeiro, and the director of the Aerospace Technology Centre, Aluizio Weber – both Brazilian Air Force brigadiers.

With a successful SLV, the Brazilian Space Agency, which co- ordinates the various institutions involved in space research, would complete an entire cycle of space activity. The agency’s goal is to fight for a space, though small, of a global market that surpasses 100 billion dollars in trade per year and is growing rapidly.

Brazil already manufactures small satellites for various purposes and has its Alcántara Launch Centre. Because of its location near the equator – at just 2.3 degrees latitude south – it is considered an ideal base for rocket launches.

Alcántara has won the attention of the Space Agency of the Ukraine, which signed a co-operation agreement in November with the Brazilian government. Plans are underway to expand base capacity and provide launch services using Ukrainian rockets.

United States telecommunications firms have been authorised to launch their satellites from the Brazilian base, which grants it major commercial importance. The site offers the lowest costs among the world’s 14 satellite launch bases.

With Saturday’s disaster, however, the SLV continues to be a development project for the Aerospace Technological Centre, based in Sao Jose dos Campos, 100 km from Sao Paulo, as well as for the other scientific organisations involved in the programme.

The third attempt to launch a satellite using a nationally- manufactured rocket is scheduled for 2001.

The SLV, with the capacity to carry 100 to 350 kg in low orbit, at up to 1,000 km altitude, would also be highly competitive globally, with a cost of seven million dollars – half the price of the U.S.-made Pegasus.

But the next satellite to be launched will not be completely nationally made, but will be one built in co-operation with France. “More versatile and complete,” announced Marcio Nogueira Barbosa, director of the National Institute of Space Research, where the satellites are manufactured.

The desire of scientists to boost the Complete Space Mission comes up against financial difficulties, which are likely to worsen with the SLV’s second failure. The rocket is already 10 years behind its original schedule.

The programme’s budgets grow tighter each year and its institutions have already lost many of their scientists. The limited salaries they can pay obstruct their dreams of conquering outer-space.