Centro de Lançamento de Alcântara

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Coordinates: 2 ° 19 ′ 3.2 ″  S , 44 ° 22 ′ 5 ″  W The Centro de Lançamento de Alcântara (CLA) is a Brazilian rocket launch site on the Atlantic coast near Alcântara in the state of Maranhão . It is the launch site closest to the equator in the world.

location

The establishment of a new launch site was necessary because the previous Barreira do Inferno site near Natal was in an area that was too densely populated.

The choice fell on a peninsula near São Luís , the capital of the state of Maranhão. The area was easily accessible both in the air and in the water and allowed take-offs with various orbit inclines. The proximity to the equator saves fuel because the earth's rotation can be fully exploited when taking off to the east.

Facilities

The spaceport occupies 620 square kilometers. There are two launch ramps on the site: one for suborbital missions of up to 10 t launch mass, the other for the VLS-1 launcher . A third ramp is under construction for the Ukrainian rocket Tsiklon-4 . In addition, facilities for preparing the payloads, a weather station and a satellite ground station are located on the site.

Construction and operation

Construction began in 1982 and cost the equivalent of $ 470 million. The facility was officially inaugurated on February 21, 1990 with the launch of a Sonda sounding rocket .

Since then, the types Sonda 2 and Sonda 3 , VS-40 , VS-30 and VSB-30 have been launched . In cooperation with NASA , rockets of the types Viper Sphere , Nike Orion , Black Brant , Nike Tomahawk and Improved Orion were launched.

In total, more than 50 suborbital rockets have been launched so far. Two orbital launch attempts of the Brazilian VLS-1 rocket failed in the first flight phases, so that a successful satellite launch from Alcântara has not yet taken place.

accident

Main article: Brazilian missile explosion

On August 22, 2003, there was an accident in which a VLS-1 rocket, which was already on the launch pad and was supposed to launch two satellites into space three days later, exploded when the solid propulsion units detonated prematurely. 21 people were killed in the explosion and a bush fire started. The smoke and the explosion could be heard as far as São Luís . This accident was a major setback for the efforts of the Agência Espacial Brasileira to develop its own type of solid fuel missile.

Cooperation with Ukraine

At times it was planned to use Ukrainian Tsiklon-4 rockets from Alcântara for commercial satellite launches. The binational organization Alcantara Cyclone Space (ACS) was founded for this purpose. The foundation stone for the new launch pad was laid on September 9, 2010. However, in 2016 Brazil withdrew from the contract.

Resettlement of the population

The population around the launch site consists mainly of descendants of African slaves and lives in villages, the so-called quilombos . The Brazilian government expropriated 503 families for the construction of the missile center. Starting in 1986, 312 families were resettled in seven newly built villages, where they could not continue their previous lifestyle because they lived too far from the sea and the farmland was not fertile enough. This destroyed the economic, family, cultural and religious habits of the population. Those affected have now set up organizations to support their demands for appropriate compensation and to avoid further expropriation when the launch site is expanded.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Força Aérea Brasileira: Implantacao. Retrieved August 22, 2018 (Portuguese).
  2. ^ Brazil Forms New Company to Market Alcântara Launch Services. Space and Tech, February 26, 2001; archived from the original on November 19, 2011 ; accessed on September 30, 2010 (English).
  3. ↑ Thomas Weyrauch: Foundation stone laid for Zyklon 4 launch systems. raumfahrer.net, October 9, 2010, accessed on May 22, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Roberto Maltchik: Brasil formaliza rompimento de acordo para lançar foguete ucraniano. O Globo, July 23, 2016, accessed May 22, 2017 (Portuguese).
  5. ^ Between the Law and Their Land: Afro-Brazilian Quilombo Communities' Struggle for Land Rights. (PDF with 455 KB) The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, September 22, 2008, p. 33 , accessed on September 30, 2010 (English).
  6. ↑ Vera Salles: Afro-Brazilian Communities in the Shadow of Space Facility. Inter Press Service, July 15, 2010, accessed September 30, 2010 .