Ecobreves – BRAZIL: It's a Go for Space Mission

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 25 2006 (IPS) - The Mar. 30 space flight of Marcos Pontes, Brazil's first astronaut, “will give visibility to our space program and will make citizens understand why it is necessary,” Sergio Mauricio Brito Gaudenzi, president of the Brazilian Space Agency, told Tierramérica. Pontes will travel aboard the Russian spaceship Soyuz, launched from Kazakhstan and traveling to the International Space Station, where he will coordinate several experiments.

Space technology has completely changed the way we see and care for the environment, according to Gaudenzi. Now in orbit, a Chinese-Brazilian satellite provides images of the planet's surface, highlighting, for example, the status of environmentally protected areas, like the Amazon.

All the knowledge we seek through space exploration has as an objective the improviment of life for everyone on Earth,” he said.