Elon Musk wants to launch his SpaceX rockets from Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – U.S. tycoon Elon Musk, owner of Tesla, expressed interest in using Brazil’s Alcantara space center as a base to launch his company SpaceX’s rockets, said Brazil’s Infrastructure Minister Marcelo Sampaio.

“SpaceX wants to launch its rockets from the Alcantara base,” the minister assured in a virtual press conference he gave to foreign correspondents in Brazil and when questioned about the areas of his portfolio addressed in the visit that the world’s richest man made last week to Brazil.

The advantages of the Alcantara base were presented to the businessman by the commander of the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) himself, Brigadier Carlos de Almeida Baptista Junior, who attended the meeting Musk had last Friday in São Paulo with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

“SpaceX is a leader in the global commercial launch market and may become a partner in space vehicle launch operations from Brazilian territory,” the FAB said in a statement at the time.

BRAZIL, A SPACE POINT OF INTEREST

The Air Force chose SpaceX to launch two remote surveillance satellites into space to monitor illegal activities in the Amazon region, which was successfully carried out on Wednesday.

Other companies from countries such as the United States, France, Russia, and Israel have also expressed interest in using Brazil’s base in the Amazon to launch satellite-carrying rockets.

The Alcantara Launch Center is located in the Amazonian state of Maranhao, close to the Atlantic Ocean and in a region of low demographic density a few kilometers from the Equator, conditions that allow it to offer great advantages to anyone interested in placing satellites in space.

Due to its strategic geographical position, only two degrees south of the Equator and closer to the geostationary orbit, the Brazilian base guarantees savings of about 30% in the fuel used for launches.

During his visit to Brazil, Elon Musk met with Bolsonaro to analyze the “economic potential” of the country and announce a plan to “monitor” the Amazon and expand the Internet network that reaches the most remote points of the region thanks to SpaceX’s satellite network.

With information from EFE