Brazilian astronaut Lt. Col. Marcio Cesar Pontes became Brazil's first person in space. He flied on a Russian Soyuz to the International Space Station.
Pontes began training in 1998 in the United States and was scheduled to fly to the space station aboard a U.S. space shuttle, but those plans were scrapped after the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration suspended shuttle flights in the wake of the 2003 Columbia explosion.
Following the U.S. shuttle disaster, Brazil began discussions with Russia about the possibility of Pontes traveling aboard a Russian rocket.
During a November 2004 visit to Brazil, Russian President Vladimir Putin also agreed that Russia would help Brazil resume its space program and restore its rocket-launching base, which was destroyed by a rocket explosion in Alcantra Base Station on 2003 that killed 21 skilled technicians.
Brazil and Russia signed an agreement for the space mission during Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's visit to Moscow last October 2005.
Marcio Pontes will held scientific experiments in International Space Station regarding to INPE space navigation systems and Embrapa biotechnology and food experiments on low gravity. Brazil is one of the 15 countries in the world with a complete space program from telecom research, satellite construction and navigation systems, rocket fuel and launch vehicles.
From left, U.S. astronaut Col. Jeffrey Williams Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov and Brazilian astronaut Marcos Cesar Pontes, shake hands during a news conference at the training center in Star City outside, Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2006. Credit: AP Photo/Misha Japaridze.
