Lívia Veiga
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Moscow (Russia) - Technical personnel from the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) have arrived in Russia to review with their counterparts at the Russian Space Agency the contract and finalize the timetable for the March 30 launch of the Soyuz spacecraft. The three astronauts assigned to the mission will give a collective interview, tomorrow (8), in Star City, where they are undergoing training.

At the end of this month, technical personnel from the National Institute of Space Research (INPE) and the Brazilian Air Force's Aerospace Technical Center (CTA) will travel to Russia and meet with the Brazilian astronaut, Lieutenant-Coronel Marcos Pontes to go over the experiments he will carry with him on the Centennial Mission. Pontes will be the first Brazilian astronaut ever to participate in a mission in space.

The AEB, which is linked to the Ministry of Science and Technology, picked nine experiments to be performed on the International Space Station (ISS). A group from the Russian Space Agency was in Brazil at the end of January to check the security of the experiments and suggest modifications.

Translation: David Silberstein