The Alcântara Space Center is a good launch site, but do companies really want to use it?

On Tuesday, the Trump administration signed a draft agreement with Brazil that could one day lead to the launching of US rockets from the South American country's coastal spaceport. President Trump praised the idea of ​​using the base, arguing that "because of the location, enormous amounts of money would be saved". But while the launch site offers some key benefits for US launch vendors, those advantages may not be enough to attract all the major rocket companies to the area.

The biggest asset of the spaceport in Brazil is its proximity to the equator. The site, known as Centro Espacial de Alcântara, is located at a latitude of just 2,3 degrees south. For anyone launching a rocket, this is an attractive point. There aren't many options on Earth for launching them near the equator, and this base would make it much easier for satellite operators to send payloads into an equatorial orbit. Also, rockets at the equator get an extra boost in speed, thanks to Earth's rotation, which helps rockets save fuel.

However, the logistics of installing a new launch pad in Brazil can be a problem for some. The biggest North American rocket companies, such as SpaceX, United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin, already have several launch options outside the US that are relatively close to the equator. A new base would need a lot of upfront investment to create the ground infrastructure in Brazil to support each company's unique rocket design. That's a lot of money and work for a small amount of flight benefits. Also, shipping overseas to Brazil can add an extra layer of time and money that wouldn't be an issue when launching in the US.

There are some launch providers on the smaller end of the rocket scale that see big opportunities in Brazil. Companies like the startup Vector, which are dedicated exclusively to launching small satellites, openly defended the possibility of launching outside Alcântara. This would allow them to launch missions that they simply cannot do in the United States because of their smaller size. Since the company's hardware is not as big as that of a Falcon 9 or Atlas V rocket, very little investment is needed to make the launchpad infrastructure. "I think it's really going to be the domain of future small rockets that go there," Jim Cantrell, CEO and co-founder of Vector, tells The Verge.

Why Brazil?

The rockets launched again from Alcântara would reinvigorate what was once a great national resource for Brazil. Numerous rockets sounded in the area during the 90s. But in 2003, a rocket designed for orbit exploded on the launch pad of the pad during some ground tests, killing 21 people nearby and leveling the pad's launch tower. The accident halted Brazil's efforts to launch two planned satellites, and the country's space efforts struggled to recover.

Debris at the Alcântara Launch Center, after the 2003 explosion

Since then, Brazil has sought international partnerships to take vehicles from other countries to Alcântara. The country even courted the Bush administration in 2000 to bring commercial launches there, but those efforts were met with opposition from Brazilian lawmakers. Now, Brazil is trying again. In 2018, the government invited two major US players in the aerospace industry, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, to visit Alcântara, according to a Reuters report. The aim is to offer a cheaper location than the neighboring Guiana Space Center in South America's French Guiana, where all of Europe's rockets fly.

Alcântara has some impressive geographic benefits that are necessary for a spaceport. It is on the coast of Brazil, with the Atlantic Ocean to the east. This is critical for a launch site, as many rockets launch in an easterly direction to match the direction of Earth's orbit. Launching over a large body of water is important for safety, as it reduces the risk of a rocket part falling on someone or damaging someone's property. It's the reason why US launches take place in coastal areas such as Cape Canaveral in Florida or Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Brazil has a slight advantage over Cape Canaveral, located at about 28,5 degrees north. Being close to the equator is great for sending satellites into a type of orbit known as a geostationary orbit. This is a path 22.000 miles above the Earth's equator, where the satellites are traveling at the same speed as the Earth's rotation. The result is that the satellites basically hover over the same patch of Earth at all times. It's a perfect spot to deposit a communications satellite or surveillance probe that needs to look at the same region of the planet at all times.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 takes off from Cape Canaveral, Florida

Getting to Florida's geostationary orbit takes a little extra work. Rockets must deposit a satellite on a slightly inclined path from the equator (with an incline of 28,5 degrees), and satellites must change their direction in orbit by burning an onboard engine. This requires fuel, which takes up space on a satellite and influences vehicle design. At a point like Alcântara or the Guiana Space Center, such a change of plane would be minuscule, requiring less fuel.

Also, Earth is actually moving faster at the equator than other points on the planet, which is good news for rockets. Earth's equator is its widest section, so it has a long way to go each time the planet makes a full 24-hour rotation. A point on the equator has to travel a much greater distance than a point near the poles, for example. So a rocket launch at the equator gets an extra boost in velocity, making it easier for the vehicle to reach the high speeds needed to reach orbit. The rocket doesn't need a lot of fuel, making launches more efficient and potentially allowing companies to carry more payload in one flight.

“You can use a less powerful rocket to launch the same satellite, or you can launch a larger satellite using the same launch vehicle,” says Lakshmi Kantha, professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

WHO REALLY WANTS TO LAUNCH IN BRAZIL?

Are all these benefits enough to attract large US companies to Brazil? It's not a huge inconvenience to send rockets over water. In fact, Arianespace ships its rockets by boat from Europe and Russia to French Guiana. The ULA also ships parts of its Delta IV Heavy by boat, and NASA used to ship the Space Shuttle's external tank from New Orleans to Florida. “Big ships are used to accommodate oversized equipment,” Dennis Jenkins, an aerospace engineer at the California Science Center who used to work on the Space Shuttle, tells The Verge. "Most major rockets throughout history have been sent at least partially by sea."

However, moving by boat is time consuming and a bit expensive, especially when traveling to Brazil via the Panama Canal. “That, of course, is one of the problems with ships – they are very slow,” says Jenkins. Having a launch site closer to where a rocket is built makes things more efficient. Recently, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk noted that the company's next-generation rocket, the Starship, would be built in Texas and Florida, right next to two of SpaceX's launch sites. Also, places like Texas and Florida are still a long way from the south, so the performance benefit of moving further south will not be as important for US companies as it would be for Russia or European countries. .

Then there is the cost of equipping Alcantara to meet a launch provider's needs. For larger rockets, companies will have to add concrete blocks, towers and fuel storage tanks to the surrounding area to support flights of their vehicles. Creating all of this in the Brazilian jungle, where minimal infrastructure already exists, will require a lot of work and investment. Furthermore, all of this would be in service to book more missions into geostationary orbit, which is a type of flight that has seen a recent market downturn.

A vector rocket, which is about 40 meters high

SpaceX already told Reuters it was not interested in building in Alcantara and declined to comment with The Verge. Boeing and Lockheed Martin, which oversee the United Launch Alliance, confirmed they had looked at the site but have yet to make any big plans to invest there. "While we have not made concrete plans at this time, the potential for a new launch site is an encouraging development given the global interest in fast and efficient launch opportunities," a Lockheed Martin representative said in a statement to The Verge. Boeing declined to comment.

Ultimately, Alcantara may be a better investment for rocket companies that don't look like SpaceX or ULA, who are chasing another market altogether. Companies like Vector are only able to launch smaller satellites into low Earth orbit, and these types of probes are unable to significantly change their directions in space. So if a small satellite operator wants to go into a lower orbit over the equator, they basically have to launch at the equator. “Practically no one is launching rockets to equatorial orbits from low orbit,” says Cantrell. “Virtually nobody.” Vector hopes to be one of the first companies to offer this option, claiming that around 10 customers have asked for it.

An extra boost in speed for a small launcher like the Vector means a lot more than it does for SpaceX or the ULA. It could be the difference between launching a 200-pound and a 300-pound launch, opening up the company to different types of missions. Also, infrastructure and transportation costs for Vector's smaller rockets are less inconvenient. “All we really need is a concrete platform like we've already built in Alaska, and we need permission to launch,” says Cantrell, adding that the company's rocket could fit inside a plane.

Alcântara is far from open for the US rocket business yet. The US signed what is known as a technology safeguards agreement with the company, which is the same type of agreement Bush signed in 2000. The agreement needs to be approved by the Brazilian Congress, and if that happens, there are still many regulatory hurdles to go through. But if it's ever allowed, the base looks much better suited to smaller rockets than larger ones.

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