He pointed to good mutual understanding existing between Russia and Brazil in this field. Currently the two countries are implementing a project which he says is important both in terms of technology and in terms of commerce.
"In this joint project to launch space satellites Brazil and Russia have come close to intensive and very positive cooperation," the minister emphasised.
According to him, with Russian assistance, this project, by allowing Brazil to improve its technology of developing its own carrier rocket, will make it possible not only to resume a programme of sending its own rocket into space in 2006, but also to make rocket launching safe.
Brazil has been running a programme to launch its own satellite since 1980. But the first blast-off in 1997 was a failure. The rocket exploded 65 seconds after the start from the Alcantara cosmodrome in the state of Maranhao, in the north-east of the country. The flight of the second rocket lasted only 200 seconds. The third attempt on August 22, 2003 ended in a rocket blowing up on the launching table as a result of a short-circuit. The disaster killed 21 people.
The minister expressed gratitude for the timely assistance rendered by Russia to Brazil following the incident in Alcantara last year. "Right after the incident we received a quick reply from Russia, which sent us a group of specialists to look into the causes of the disaster. Their work was useful," he said.
Russian specialists twice visited Brazil to help with ascertaining the causes of the explosion and are now helping to "convert to a different security format so that a 2006 launch could have the maximum rate of success," said Filho.
"Part of our planned cooperation with Russia is progressive conversion from the solid-fueled engine to a liquid-fueled one," the Brazilian minister noted. "We will be jointly developing ever more powerful engines and gradually moving over from the solid fuel to a liquid fuel in using carrier rockets until we reach maximum capacity for reaching a geostationary orbit."
"This cooperation will become a model in which we have great faith and which will be developed in the course of the next few years," Filho remarked. In his view, the launching of Brazil's own rocket "will mark an important and significant milestone in cooperation between Brazil and Russia".
"I want to call attention to the fact that space cooperation has no military orientation," the defence minister said. "We intend to orbit communications satellites of the most diverse nature. Brazil and Russia are signatories to the Missile Technology Control Regime and are cooperating within these norms."
