How does it feel to be the only South American country participating in the International Space Station?
Normal, I should say. Brazil has a relatively modest space program. It does not include manned flights or anything like that. We are a very junior partner in the space station, but it seems to be sufficient for our people to have the opportunity to fly experiments under microgravity. It’s not felt by anyone around here that there is something out of order given the size of our space program. How does your space program benefit Brazilians? Our space program has always been very much devoted to space applications. It does have a science component, but it’s not a purely science-driven program. But it’s not a purely technologically-driven program [either]. If you look at what Brazil has done in space over the years, it has always been using a program devoted to using space to do things for Brazil that are either better done or can only be done using space. Probably a very easy-to-understand example is the monitoring of deforestation in the Amazon. If you really think about it, it’s not tha
