During his trip, Pontes carried out eight experiments selected by the Brazilian Space Agency, including testing flight dynamics of saw blades in zero gravity environments.

[6] The then president Jânio Quadros in 1960 established a commission that elaborated a national program for the space exploration.

As a result of this work, in August 1961, the Organization Group of the National Commission of Space Activities (Portuguese: Grupo de Organização da Comissão Nacional de Atividades Espaciais) was formed, operating in São José dos Campos, in the state of São Paulo.

The creation of the AEB represents a change in government orientation by establishing a central coordinating body for the space program, reporting directly to the Presidency of the Republic.

[citation needed] In 2011, Argentina's defense minister, Arturo Puricelli, made a proposal to the Brazilian minister, Celso Amorim, for the creation of a unified South American space agency by the year 2025, according to the European Space Agency.

[14] The second flight is scheduled for the following years as part of the SHEFEX mission, to be conducted also from Alcântara, in partnership with the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

[21] The program was named "Southern Cross" in reference to the Crux constellation, present on the flag of Brazil and composed of five stars.

As a direct modification of the VLS-1 of the original project, replacing the fourth and fifth stages by a single liquid fuel engine.

The VLS Gama launcher is part of the light-weight class, but using the near-equatorial position of the Alcântara Launch Center, it can place almost 1 ton of payload into orbit up to 800 km.

The VLS Delta launcher is a medium-weight rocket and differs from the Gamma by having four solid-propellant boosters attached to the first stage.

The 14-X, a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) under development with the Brazilian Air Force, was conceived in 2007 and launched on 14 February 2022,[25][26] by a VSB-30 rocket, reaching to 100,000 feet of altitude and a maximum speed of Mach 10.

[48] Pontes was the first Brazilian astronaut,[49] having launched with the Expedition 13 crew from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 29, 2006, aboard a Soyuz-TMA spacecraft.

[49] In January 2019, Pontes was nominated by the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro as Minister of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communication, a position he held until 2022.

[53] The Bingo radio telescope called Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from Integrated Neutral Gas Observations,[54] is a project coordinated by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Brazilian Space Agency, National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and international partners from Europe and China.

The telescope will consist of two giant dishes, with 40 meters of diameter each, which will receive radiation from the space and project their spectrum in a series of metal detectors, called horns.

[56]: 202  These projects have helped both Brazil and China develop their access to satellite imagery and promoted remote sensing research.

[57] However, due to cost issues, the subcontractor Embraer was unable to provide the promised ExPrESS pallet, and Brazil left the programme in 2007.

[65] On November 8, 2010, National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) signed a Letter of Intent regarding the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD+) program.

[66] Examples of the cooperation include the monitoring of illegal logging in the Amazon rainforest utilizing data from JAXA's ALOS satellite.

[68] On 15 June 2021, the country officially joined the program by signing the Artemis Accords with the U.S. and international partners, for the joint exploration of the Moon from 2024 and Mars and beyond in 2030s.

[6] On 18 August 2021, AEB signed cooperation agreements with space agencies of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), to the joint-development of a remote sensing satellite constellation,[69] aiming to help with common challenges for the mankind such as the climate change, major disasters and environmental protection.

Ground stations located in Cuiabá in Brazil, Moscow Region in Russia, Shadnagar–Hyderabad in India, Sanya in China and Hartebeesthoek in South Africa will receive data from the satellite constellation.