| People (Marcos_Pontes) |
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| IPTC INFO | | Caption | 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. 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. 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 self-propelled machine heavier than air as the Wright brother's flyer used a catapult to take-off. 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 | | Headline | the first Brazilian to go into space | | Copyright Notice | wiki/Marcos_Pontes | | URL | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcos_Pontes |
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