Pontes, Marcos

Marcos Pontes, in full Marcos Cesar Pontes, (born March 11, 1963, Bauru, Brazil), Brazilian pilot and astronaut, the first Brazilian citizen in space.

Pontes graduated in 1984 as a military pilot with a B.S. in aeronautical technology from the Brazil Air Force Academy in Pirassununga. For 14 years he investigated aeronautical accidents as a flight safety officer. He earned a B.S. in aeronautical engineering from the Aeronautical Institute of Technology, in São José dos Campos, in 1993 and then completed a test-pilot course. He worked in the fields of missile testing, weapons development, and aircraft evaluation as a test pilot. Pontes graduated with distinction from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, in 1998 with an M.S. in systems engineering.

In 1998 he was selected as a mission specialist and reported to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) Johnson Space Center in Houston, where he attended astronaut training. However, after space shuttle flights were put on hold by the 2003 Columbia disaster, Brazil reached an agreement in 2005 with Russia to send Pontes to space aboard a Russian craft. He launched from Kazakhstan on March 30, 2006, aboard Soyuz TMA-8 with commander Pavel Vinogradov of Russia and flight engineer Jeffrey Williams of the United States. During the eight-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS), he conducted several scientific experiments, including a study on the human body’s reaction to spending prolonged periods in space. He returned to Earth on April 8, 2006, on Soyuz TMA-7. After his flight Pontes worked at the Johnson Space Center, where he was involved in the production of Brazilian parts for the ISS.

In 2019 Pontes became the minister of science, technology, innovation, and communications in the Brazilian government.