Brazil's Air Force launched a rocket carrying the Recoverable Suborbital Microgravity Platform, known as the PSM-R, a short-range space laboratory, on Tuesday from the Barreira do Inferno Launch Center in Parnamirim, Rio Grande do Norte. The launch was part of an operation called Potiguar 2.
The main goal of this phase was to test the PSM-R's recovery system under real flight conditions. The system uses a set of parachutes that allow the platform to return to Earth and its payload to be retrieved from the sea.
The launch was carried out by the Brazilian Air Force, known by its Portuguese acronym FAB, and had already been planned in advance.
Space agency calls launch a success
Marco Antonio Chamon, president of the Brazilian Space Agency, described the launch as a success. He said the mission allowed the team not only to run a microgravity sequence for several experiments carried on board, but above all to validate in flight a national platform that can now be reused on future flights for new scientific experiments.
The vehicle is designed to carry payloads to altitudes above 100 kilometers, which allows experiments to be conducted in microgravity conditions during part of the flight.
Payload recovered by helicopter
Sergio Roberto de Almeida, president of ALADA, the Brazilian Aerospace Projects Company, said the payload was recovered by a Brazilian Air Force helicopter, which he said demonstrates the technology's potential for economic use.
Recovery of the payload is necessary for research that depends on returning samples to laboratories. It also allows equipment to be reused and can shorten the interval between launches, he said.
Almeida added that launches like this one are especially important for the pharmaceutical and chemical industries, which rely on this type of experiment.
Two launch centers in under two months
Almeida said the key takeaway was the demonstration of operational capacity at Brazil's two launch centers, the Alcantara Launch Center and the Barreira do Inferno Launch Center, which operated within less than two months of each other. He said both sites now have full operational capacity to be used by private companies, whether Brazilian or foreign, or even by public companies from other countries interested in carrying out launches in Brazil.
