Dilemmas in space strategy for regional powers: A Brazilian Perspective

An Historical Overview. Brazil was among the first countries to officially include space activities within its government program back in 1961 with the establishment of GOCNAE, the Organizing Group of the National Commission for Space Activities, placed under the National Research Council (CNPq). It is worth mentioning that, despite being a civilian organization, GOCNAE received staunch support from the Ministry of Aeronautics, which provided a site in São José dos Campos, São Paulo, and personnel to compose part of GOCNAEs initial staff. In 1966, the Ministry of Aeronautics established the Executive Group for Space Projects Activities and Studies (GETEPE) which, in 1969, created the Institute of Space Activities (IAE). These activities were consolidated in 1971 under COBAE, the Brazilian Commission of Space Activities, a coordinating interministerial body under the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces (EMFA). In 1971, GOCNAE became INPE (the Institute of Space Research); and from 1985 on INPE (which since 1990 became the National Institute for Space Research) reported to the Ministry of Science and Technology. INPEs activities, initially focused on aeronautics research, expanded in the 70s to include space applications such as remote sensing and meteorology. Actually, Brazil was among the first countries in the world to install a complete Landsat Satellite Ground Station in 1972, right after the United States and Canada.2 From there it went into space technology (satellites and associated ground systems). Meanwhile, the IAE concentrated its efforts on the development of sounding rockets and, more recently, launch vehicles. The Ministry of Aeronautics also set up the Launch Centers of Barreira do Inferno (CLBI) and Alcântara (CLA). The former has been in operation since 1965, providing facilities for launching and tracking Brazilian and foreign sounding rockets, aiming not only at the development of the countrys capability in sounding rockets and launch vehicles but also for the research in space and atmospheric sciences. CLBI has successfully handled well over 2,000 launchings to date.3 In 1979, the government established the Complete Brazilian Space Mission (MECB), the first long-term space project which aimed at the development of small application satellites (environmental data collecting and remote sensing) and a launch vehicle to do the job properly, along with their ground infrastructure. This led to the building of the CLA in the state of Maranhão. The CLA is in use for suborbital launches. Its location, close to the equator, renders it an internationally competitive center for satellite launches. Brazil pursued enhanced cooperation with other countries, in addition to maintaining the MECB project during late 1980s. Political changes plus the world scenario led Brazil to substitute COBAE with a new institution conceived to exert an ampler role in this countrys space affairs, emphasizing not only its civilian role but its purely pacific nature during early 1990s. Hence, the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) was created in 1994 as a civilian organization under the Presidency of the Republic (since last year, AEB has been put under the Ministry of Science and Technology). This has been kept this way, regardless of the statements and forecasts published in a RAND report back in 1993.4 It is also worth mentioning that Brazil signed the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) agreement in 1998. A Review of the Present Situation. Today, Brazil has nearly 300 Ph.D. scientists, 800 researchers and engineers, and 2,000 technical people from different fields engaged in space activities under the overall coordination of the AEB. Infrastructure, space technology, and systems are the concentration areas of investment, for they are basically more expensive than scientific research and the application of proven technologies. Brazil has matured in the fields of remote sensing and meteorology. It also has a reasonable foundation in space technology and engineering. Besides the Alcântara (CLA) and Barreira do Inferno (CLBI) launch facilities, the space community in Brazil has succeeded in building other basic infrastructure items for space R&D such as the Integration and Test Laboratory (LIT), the Satellite Tracking and Control Center (CRC), the Colonel Abner Propellants Utility (UCA), and, more recently, the Satellite Thrusters Test Facility with Altitude Simulation (BTSA).

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