Flávio Dieguez
Special Envoy

Baikonur (Kazakhstan) – Ravil Khamitov, the Director of the Press Center of Baikonur, Russian cosmodrome located in Kazakhstan, said this Monday (27) that he considers "very meaningful that the first Brazilian cosmonaut will be launched to space exactly from the Yuri Gagarin platform." The Russian Gagarin was the first man to go to space, in 1961.

Khamitov officially opened the preparations for the flight of the Brazilian aviator lieutenant colonel Marcos Pontes. The liftoff of the spaceship that will take Pontes in the "Centenary Mission" (in honor of Brazilian aviation pioneer, Santos Dummont, who flew his "14 Bis" airplane one hundred years ago) is scheduled for 8h29min, local time, March 30th.

This will be the 13th crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS), which is supported mainly by European and North American funds, in addition to a minor Brazilian collaboration.

According to the Russian company "Energia," responsible for the launching, the Soyuz TMA-8 ship, which will take Pontes to space, will be attached at the top of the launcher rocket, also called Soyuz, in the coming hours.

Marcos Pontes was the first Brazilian chosen to travel to the space station, and was selected by the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) to be an astronaut after having gone through a public selective process, eight years ago.

According to AEB, in addition to Marcos Pontes, two other astronauts, the North American Jeffrey Williams, and the Russian Pavel Vinogradov, integrate the crew. The Brazilian is scheduled to stay at the space station for eight days. The other two will be there for six months.

Translation: Andréa Alves