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Marcos Pontes
Sign in to saveAlso known as Marcos Cesar Pontes
NASA astronaut, 22nd Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation of Brazil (2019–2022) and Senator of the Federative Republic of Brazil since 2023
OverviewAI-generated
Marcos Pontes is a Brazilian astronaut, engineer, fighter pilot, and writer born on 11 March 1963 in Bauru. A member of the Social Liberal Party, he holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Brazilian Air Force, where he is employed. He was educated at the Naval Postgraduate School and is a member of NASA Astronaut Group 17. His spaceflight experience includes serving on the crews of Soyuz TMA-8, Soyuz TMA-7, and Missão Centenário.
Pontes has authored five works, including O Menino do Espaço, Polarization effects on infrared target contrast, Caminhando com Gagarin, Missão Cumprida, and É Possível!. He is recognized in the Astronauts collection. In addition to his professional roles, he is a native Portuguese speaker who also speaks Brazilian Portuguese. He plays the guitar and piano, has two children, and was a candidate in the 2022 São Paulo gubernatorial election.
Synthesized by Vinony from 25 facts across 3 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, Vinony collections. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Born
- 11 March 1963
- Works
- 5
Top works
- O Menino do Espaço
- Polarization effects on infrared target contrast
- Caminhando com Gagarin
- Missão Cumprida
- É Possível!
via Open Library + Wikidata
Key facts
- President
- Jair Bolsonaro
- Preceded by
- Gilberto Kassab
- Succeeded by
- Paulo Alvim
- Born
- ( 1963-03-11 ) 11 March 1963 (age 63) , Bauru , São Paulo , Brazil
- Party
- PL (2022–present)
- Other political affiliations
- DEM (2009–2012) PSB (2013–2018) PSL (2018–2022) UNIÃO (2022)
- Occupation
- Fighter pilot , astronaut
- Allegiance
- Brazil
- Branch service
- Brazilian Air Force
- Rank
- Lieutenant colonel
- Status
- Retired
- Time in space
- 9 days, 21 hours and 17 minutes
- Selection
- 1998 NASA Group
- Missions
- Soyuz TMA-8 ( Missão Centenário )
- Fields
- Systems Engineering
- Thesis
- Polarization effects on infrared target contrast (1998)
- Academic advisors
- Alfred W. Cooper, David D. Cleary (thesis)
- Website
- www .marcospontes .com
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Part of
- NASA Astronaut Group 17
- Given name
- Marcos
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- Brazil
- Place of birth
- Bauru
- Occupation
- politician
- Educated at
- Aeronautics Institute of Technology
- Employer
- Brazilian Air Force
- Political party
- Social Liberal Party
- Languages spoken
- Brazilian Portuguese
- Native language
- Portuguese
- Instrument
- piano
- Military branch
- Brazilian Air Force
- Military rank
- Lieutenant Colonel
- Official website
- www.marcospontes.com
- Image
- Marcos Pontes.jpg
- Number of children
- 2
Show 9 more facts
- Commons category
- Marcos Pontes
- date of birth
- 1963-03-11
- Commons gallery
- Marcos Pontes
- time in space
- 14237
- social media followers
- 852482
- P10632
- Marcos Pontes
- candidacy in election
- 2022 São Paulo gubernatorial election
- member of the crew of
- Missão Centenário
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~12 min read
Encyclopedic overview
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. He left the post on 31 March 2022 and in the same year was elected federal senator for his state, São Paulo.
Early life
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Marcos Pontes” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.