The third in a series of UPI articles examining the aerospace industries of selected countries.
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WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- Although the cause of the explosion that destroyed Brazil's latest space booster remains a mystery, one thing is clear: the country's expansive vision of space has not been supported with earthbound resources. The result might be a deferral -- if not outright abandonment -- of that country's space age dreams.
Brazil's space fixation began more than three decades ago, in a series of carefully crafted space goals that meshed with the country's long range economic development plans. In steady, incremental steps, Brazil planned on developing a scientifically capable, locally built space booster, a national satellite manufacturing ability and a space center from which to operate these programs.
The Brazilians targeted Earth resource and scientific satellites as key areas, along with a space launch vehicle to orbit them all. The country also wanted to leverage partnerships with other, more developed space powers -- particularly the United States and the Russian Federation.
The remote-sensing-resource satellites were designed to gather data about Brazil's vast expanses of rainforests and its climates, with the scientific harvest made available to local industry and universities. The combined effect would bolster national economic development while supporting greater educational programs. An additional benefit would be the creation of a commercially viable space booster that could compete on the world launch market, operated from Brazil's space center at Alcantara on the country's Atlantic coast. A successful space launch program could compete with the nearby French launch site in Kourou, French Guiana, and their series of commercial Ariane rockets.
At least those were the plans. Brazil's successes as a space power would make it possible for the country to participate in the International Space Station as well.
There were even some signs such a program could be successful. In the 1980s, Brazil announced plans to develop a new space launching rocket capable of inserting small, 120-kilogram satellites into Earth orbit. A series of sub-orbital sounding rockets, called Sonda, was developed to begin research into the upper atmosphere as well as further the country's rocket technology. More than 200 were flown into space, most successfully. The first step in a long-range plan, Sonda rockets offered promise that Brazil's industry be infused with the new technology its space program could offer.
However, the space program also exposed the nation's greatest weakness: a lack of a strong industrial base using advanced technologies. Instead, nearly all the programs' technological needs would have to be imported from other countries -- or by the study of other programs.
On Dec. 2, 1997 the first prototype of the new rocket, called the VLS, was launched from Alcantara. But seconds after liftoff, officials exploded the vehicle when its boosters failed. A second attempt was made on Dec. 11, 1999.
"I was there, and the rocket had to be destroyed three minutes after liftoff when its second stage failed to ignite," said Frank Braun, vice president for public affairs of the National Space Society and an expert on the Brazil space program.
The failure caused development of the country's satellite program to be placed on hold. Other setbacks occurred as well.
Brazil signed a Technology Safeguards Agreement with the United States that could have opened the door to cooperation aboard the space station. But President Lula withdrew the plan days before presenting it to the country's legislature. The government notified the Bush administration it would not be able to meet its commitment for space station equipment as planned. Still, Lula told NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe his country still hoped to play a role aboard the station in the future.
Then there was another setback: Technicians erected a multi-stage version of the third VLS on the Alcantara launching pad in late August. The rocket was being tested on Aug. 26 when, for reasons still unknown, one of its solid rocket boosters ignited. The blast destroyed the VLS, much of the launching pad and equipment, and killed 21 scientists and engineers -- including the number two official at the launching site. Lula denied lack of funding contributed to the disaster and pledged Brazil would continue the VLS program and maintain its long-range space plans.
Now, with Brazil's declining economic situation, and the lack of local industries able to develop space technologies, the future of the country's space program remains highly uncertain.
Braun suggested greater cooperation with the United States was unlikely, given Brazil's failure to fund the previous space agreement. But greater cooperation in space with other nations remains possible.
"I think this will now be done in closer cooperation with the Russians and the Ukrainians," Braun told United Press International.
In his earlier visits to Alcantara, Braun saw a modern spaceport struggling to emerge. "I saw what looked like a modern, well-run space facility," he explained. "They acted in a disciplined and organized manner during the second launch, which I observed from the control center."
Seconds later, however, they destroyed the rocket.
