Brazil signs agreement to allow US to launch satellites
The Brazilian and US governments signed an agreement in Washington today to allow the United States to launch satellites from the Alcântara base in the Brazilian state of Maranhão.
[dropcap type=”background”]T[/dropcap]he agreement, confirmed by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, was signed at the American Chamber of Commerce by Brazilian ministers Ernesto Araújo, Foreign Affairs, and Marcos Pontes, Science and Technology, and by Christopher Ashley Ford, Assistant Secretary of State for North America for International Security.
In practice, the agreement provides that the United States may launch satellites and rockets from the Alcântara base, and the territory will remain under Brazilian jurisdiction.
The compromise signed between the two states is one of the main initiatives of the displacement of Bolsonaro to the USA.
According to the Brazilian magazine Veja, although US companies have to pay for the use of the base, Brazil will not have the right to access the technology used by the United States.
During the government of former head of state Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, another joint operation agreement at the Alcântara base, which provided for the transfer of technology, was signed with Ukraine. The European country would develop the launch vehicle of the satellite, with financial help from Brazil.
However, the first attempt at launch resulted in an explosion that killed 21 technicians, informs Veja.
According to the G1 news portal, a complementary adjustment agreement was signed today between Brazil and the United States between the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), to cooperation in the research of observations of spatial light sources.
The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, started an official trip to the United States on Sunday, in what is his first bilateral visit abroad as head of state, considered by himself as “strategic.”
Bolsonaro and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, will meet on Tuesday at a private meeting at the White House.
The two leaders will have a working lunch and a meeting with the ministers of the two countries, then giving a press conference.
