The Brazilian Air Force (FAB) and the South Korean company Innospace, represented by Innospace do Brasil, signed a contract on September 29, at the headquarters of the Air Force Command (COMAER), in Brasília (DF). The document aims to provide goods and services for space vehicle launches from area 1, known as the SISPLAT/VLS area, of the Alcântara Space Center (CEA), in the state of Maranhão, in the Brazilian Northeast.
The FAB Commander, Air Lieutenant Brigadier Carlos de Almeida Baptista Junior; South Korean Ambassador Lim Ki-Mo; members of the Air Force High Command; General-Officers; Innospace President and CEO Soo Jong Kim; among other representatives of the South Korean company.
The contract is a consequence of Public Call Notice No. 02/2020 of the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), of May 22, 2020, and is valid for five years, and can be extended for up to the same period.
“The partnership signed between Brazil and Innospace increasingly reinforces the cooperation between the two countries. It is the second company that signs a contract with the FAB to operate commercially in the CEA. We hope that the product will be a lever for more companies to close partnerships with the Air Force and reinforce the operation from Alcântara.”
Air Brigadier Francisco Bento Antunes Neto, President of the Commission for the Coordination and Implementation of Space Systems (CCISE) and Head of the Joint Center for Air Operations (CCOA).
Innospace was founded in 2017 in South Korea by aerospace engineer Soo Jong Kim in the city of Sejong, located less than three hours from the capital Seoul. The company will launch the HANBIT-TLV from Alcântara, a 15-ton thrust single stage hybrid rocket. It is 16.3 meters height, 1-meter-diameter and weight of 9.2 tons.
The first suborbital test flight should validate the first stage engine of the HANBIT-Nano, the South Korean company’s smallest launch vehicle, capable of carrying a 50 kg payload. The plan is for the rocket to flight up to an altitude of 100 km and fall into the open seas.
