Date of Birth: March 11, 1963
Age: 63
Marcos Cesar Pontes (born March 11, 1963) is a Brazilian Air Force pilot, engineer, AEB astronaut and author. He became the first South American and the first Lusophone to go into space when he launched into the International Space Station aboard Soyuz TMA-8 on March 30, 2006. He is the only Brazilian to have completed the NASA astronaut training program, although he switched to training in Russia after NASA's Space Shuttle program encountered problems.
The Brazilian Space Agency is a space agency in South America. They work in partnership with the US and Russia aboard the ISS. It was previously operated by the military until 1994. They now operate largely in tandem with other nations. They run a spaceport and rocket launch site both in Brazil. They built the VLM small satellite launch system in tandem with Germany. The VLS-1 was intended to be a primary launch vehicle for the BSA, but it failed 3 times and was canceled. They have restarted work on the system in tandem with the Russian Space Agency.
A batch of 25 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
A batch of 29 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
Demonstration Flight for Russia's new Soyuz-5 launch vehicle, with a mass simulator on board. Details TBD.
Artemis II is the first crewed mission as part of the Artemis program. Artemis II will send a crew of 4 - 3 Americans and 1 Canadian around the moon …
Note: Payload identity uncertain. Meridian is a series of communications satellite for military and civilian use.