Boeing, Lockheed Martin, SpaceX and other US aerospace companies have expressed interest in launching rockets from Brazil’s Alcantara military base near the equator and visited the site in December, Brazilian Minister of Defense Raul Jungmann said on Thursday.
Alcantara’s location makes it attractive because about one-fifth less fuel is required to launch satellites into orbit along the equator compared with sites farther north or south.
Besides SpaceX, Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co, the Alcantara visit included smaller US aerospace companies Vector Space Systems, which launches small satellites, and Microcosm, which focuses on providing low-cost access to space, an organizer of the trip said.
Former Brazilian ambassador to the US Rubens Barbosa, who organized the visit to the base, said that the US companies were eager to use the Alcantara site.
However, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, fresh off the successful launch this month of the world’s most powerful rocket, said the comments were not correct.
“Reports that SpaceX is interested in launching from Brazil are inaccurate,” spokesman John Taylor said in a statement.
In a statement, Lockheed Martin confirmed a fact-finding trip to Alcantara and Brasilia.
“While there are no formal decisions at this time, we look forward to a continued dialogue,” the company said.
Boeing said it sent two executives to visit the base.
“International partnerships will play an important role in making that a reality and we look forward to Brazil’s participation,” it said in a statement.
Boeing is seeking to buy Brazil’s Embraer, the world’s third-largest commercial manufacturer of passenger jets and the main player in the country’s aerospace industry.
US companies will not be able to launch rockets from Brazil until the country signs a Technology Safeguards Agreement (TSA) with Washington to protect US intellectual property.
A previous attempt to do so in 2000 was scuttled by the leftist government of former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva when he took power in 2003 and has never been ratified by the Brazilian Congress. Brazilian lawmakers are expected to approve a new TSA that is now being negotiated with the US.
Jungmann said that in addition to US companies, China, Russia, France and Israel were interested in a partnership with Brazil to use the Alcantara site.
Brazil envisions multiple users for the base.
“I think we could set up five launch platforms,” Jungmann said.
A variety of countries have worked with Brazil on space issues. Over the past two decades, China has launched five small satellites that Brazil uses to observe agriculture, the environment and the destruction of Amazon rainforest.
Brazil abandoned plans to build its own rockets after an explosion and fire at Alcantara in 2003 killed 21 people.
Brazil then turned to the Ukraine to provide space technology, but canceled the deal in 2015, after the former Soviet Union republic’s financial problems left it unable to provide rockets as promised.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS