Marcos Pontes

Marcos Pontes
Official portrait as senator
Senator for São Paulo
Assumed office
1 February 2023
Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation
In office
1 January 2019 – 31 March 2022
PresidentJair Bolsonaro
Preceded byGilberto Kassab
Succeeded byPaulo Alvim
Personal details
Born (1963-03-11) 11 March 1963 (age 61)
Bauru, São Paulo, Brazil
Political partyPL (2022–present)
Other political
affiliations
OccupationFighter pilot, astronaut
Signature
Military service
Allegiance Brazil
Branch/service Brazilian Air Force
Rank Lieutenant colonel
StatusRetired[1]
Space career
NASA astronaut
Time in space
9d 21h 17m[1]
Selection1998 NASA Group
MissionsSoyuz TMA-8,
Missão Centenário, Soyuz TMA-7
Mission insignia
Scientific career
FieldsSystems Engineering
ThesisPolarization effects on infrared target contrast (1998)
Academic advisorsAlfred W. Cooper, David D. Cleary (thesis)
Websitewww.marcospontes.com

Marcos Cesar Pontes (born 11 March 1963) is a Brazilian Air Force pilot, engineer, AEB astronaut, politician and author. He became the first South American and the first Lusophone to go into space when he docked onto the International Space Station aboard Soyuz TMA-8 on 30 March 2006. He is the only Brazilian to have completed the NASA astronaut training program, although he switched to training in Russia after NASA's Space Shuttle program encountered problems. After Jair Bolsonaro's election as President of Brazil in 2018, Pontes was officially nominated to be Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, a post which he accepted days later and assumed when Bolsonaro's government began.[2][3] He left the post on 31 March 2022 and in the same year was elected federal senator for his state, São Paulo.

  1. ^ a b "Astronaut Biography: Marcos Pontes". www.spacefacts.de. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  2. ^ Gonçalves, Carolina (28 October 2018). "Bolsonaro confirma quatro ministros para seu governo" (in Portuguese). Agência Brasil. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
  3. ^ "Astronauta Marcos Pontes diz que aceitou convite para ser ministro de Ciência e Tecnologia" (in Portuguese). G1. 30 October 2018. Retrieved 31 October 2018.