Alessandra Bastos
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - At the moment Brazil's first astronaut, Air Force Lt. Col. Marcio Pontes, and two other astronauts are on their way to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz TMA-8 vehicle. The trip takes place 45 years after the world's first astronaut, the Russian Yuri Gagarin, went into space, and 100 years after the first public flight of a heavier-than-air powered craft, the 14-bis, which was built and piloted by the Brazilian aviation pioneer, Alberto Santos Dumont.

Pontes has a Brazilian flag sewn on the left sleeve of his flight suit. He is also carrying commemorative medals celebrating his own flight and that of Santos Dumont.

According to Pontes, his heartbeat speeded up when he saw the rocket on the launch pad. "It is a lot of responsibility," he said. "It weighs on you." But. later when he was strapped into his seat in the Soyuz, he said: "Contrary to what a lot of people probably imagine, I feel very calm now."

Translation: Allen Bennett