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On November 17th 2010, I was in Washington DC attending the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the International Academy of Astronautics (www.iaaweb.org), an event that thanks to the organizational skills of its secretary general Jean-Michel Contant, included the largest gathering of heads of Space Agencies ever witnessed. In fact, there were no fewer than thirty of them, including the president of the Brazilian Space Agency, Carlos Ganem. Each of them had just three minutes to speak and express their opinion about the direction of space science over the coming years.

The keyword of the day was unmistakably ‘COOPERATION’.

In brief speeches by representatives of the institutions that shape the Space dream of countries from around the world, no one failed to mention the ‘C’ word, with the idea of working together to achieve real progress being paramount, for the four issues under discussion: Human Space Flight, Planetary Robotic Exploration, Climate Change and Disaster Management.The Working Groups of these four areas, made up of members of the Academy of Astronautics, presented their report formulated over the last year, which summarizes the achievements attained in each sector and outlines plans for the coming decades. My particular professional area of interest, Human Space Flight, has a plan that is divided into three major phases:

Between 2010 and 2025, activities will focus on the utilization of the International Space Station by astronauts from various nations, as well as the installation of one or more low earth orbit laboratories (LEO - Low Earth Orbit). The period from 2020 to 2035 will be devoted to consolidation of LEO laboratories and robotic missions to different celestial bodies such as Mars and the Moon, in an attempt to provide the necessary support for future human missions, which will occur between 2030 and 2050.

By the time the meeting ended it was early evening. Although cold, the Washington day had been beautiful, with blue skies and no clouds. As always, the fall in the northern hemisphere has a special charm, as the leaves on the trees transform into an amazing display of brown, gold and reddish-yellow, resembling the hue of copper. I left there on that beautiful autumn day with the certainty that the world was united to surmount barriers and overcome scarcity of diverse resources, in favor of a higher value: life on Earth and beyond.


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Brazil is once more to begin testing rocket launches announces the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), with the first launch scheduled to take place in 2012.

The Brazilian program suffered a huge setback in August 2003 when an explosion destroyed a Satellite Launch Vehicle (VLS) rocket as it stood on the launch pad in Alcântara in the northern state of Maranhão, Brazil. Twenty-one people were killed that day, including many of the leading scientists and project engineers, after one of the rocket's first stage motors accidentally ignited.

Following major revisions to the design of the VLS, the first test in 2012 will see only the triggering of the first two bottom stages of propellant, 2013 should see a full (though still experimental) launch with full load, and ultimately from 2014 Brazil should have the capability to put a satellite into orbit, according to Himilcon Carvalho, Director of Space Policy, AEB.

However, Brazil currently has no future plans for Space exploration or for the manufacture of spacecraft. Any scientific experiments that need to be conducted in Space will be sent through missions from other countries.
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