Marcos Pontes

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**Marcos César Pontes**
BSA Astronaut

Nationality	Brazilian
Born	March 11, 1963 Bauru, São Paulo, Brazil
Occupation¹	Fighter pilot
Rank	Lieutenant-Colonel
Space time	9d 21h 17m
Selection	1998 NASA Group
Mission(s)	Soyuz TMA-8
Mission insignia
¹ previous or current

Marcos César Pontes (born March 11, 1963) became the first Brazilian and the first Lusophone to go into space when he launched towards the International Space Station aboard Soyuz TMA-8 on March 30, 2006. He is the first and only Brazilian to join the NASA astronaut training program, although he began training in Russia after NASA's Space Shuttle program encountered problems.

1 Early life
2 Career
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Early life

Pontes was born in the town of Bauru, in the southeastern state of São Paulo.

[edit] Career

Pontes is one of the most experienced jet pilots in the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), where he holds the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and has flown for more than 2000 hours in 25 different aircraft. He was selected to join the NASA space program in June 1998 after he acquired a space-related background in the Aeronatical Engineering division of the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (the Aeronautics Technological Institute, or "ITA"), which he transferred to in pursuit of a childhood dream to become an astronaut. He began NASA training in August 1998 and was declared a "NASA astronaut" in December 2000.

"I want to see the Green-and-Yellow in space": Logo for Pontes' campaign to hasten his maiden flight.

Pontes' maiden flight, during which he was to help transport the first Brazilian-made component of the International Space Station into orbit, was postponed due to delays in the completion of the component, known as the Express Pallet, and budgetary concerns at NASA. During the delay Pontes ran a campaign to hasten the Brazilian government in completion of the part and worked on technical assignments in the Astronaut Office Space Station Operations Branch of NASA. The flight was called off when the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster suspended all NASA flights indefinitely in February 2003.

Crew of Soyuz TMA-8: Marcos Pontes, Pavel Vinogradov, Jeffrey Williams.

On September 2, 2005, an agreement which cost about US$ 20 million between the governments of Brazil and Russia provided for Pontes to train at Star City, near Moscow, to learn about the Soyuz's operational and life-support systems, and to fly to the International Space Station in March 2006. The agreement was signed by the presidents of the Brazilian and Russian space agencies, Sérgio Gaudenzi and Anatoli Perminov, respectively.

Pontes' flight coincides with celebrations of the 100th anniversary of Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont's successful flight of an airplane in Paris, in October 1906, which is considered by some to be the first flight of a machine heavier than air.

On March 30, 2006 Pontes became the first Brazilian and the first native Portuguese-speaking person to go into space, where he stayed on the International Space Station for a week. During his trip, Pontes carried out eight experiments selected by the Brazilian Space Agency. He landed in Kazakhstan on April 8, 2006, with the crew of Expedition 12.