On October 21, a delegation from the Brazilian government visited the facilities of Spacesail, a manufacturer of low-orbit satellites, in Shanghai. “We were impressed with what we saw, not only by its capacity to produce up to one satellite per day, but also by its ambitious expansion and development plan in space”said Juscelino Filho, Minister of Communications, in a publication on X, announcing that the company will establish itself in Brazil within two years.
To facilitate its installation, the Brazilian government offered Spacesail to use the Alcantara space base, located in northeastern Brazil, to launch its satellites. It also plans to sign memorandums of understanding, aimed at accelerating the company’s arrival, during the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to the G20, which will be held in Rio de Janeiro on November 18 and 19.
These efforts illustrate Brazil’s urgency to attract companies in the space sector: the country seeks to break the monopoly of Starlink, the satellite Internet access provider of Elon Musk’s SpaceX company.
Discreet metal panels
Since Starlink began operating in Brazil in June 2022, the company has captured 46% of the satellite Internet market, obtaining 265,000 subscriptions. Its discreet metal panels, very easy to install and low cost, are very successful in the Brazilian Amazon, which lacks fiber optic infrastructure. According to the National Telecommunications Agency, Starlink equipment has been installed in 96% of the municipalities in the region, allowing many indigenous communities to finally have access to an Internet connection.
star link “It facilitates access to telemedicine and allows us to develop community tourism”says Walter Kumaruara, a 28-year-old young man from Baixo Tapajós, in the west of the state of Pará. “The Internet also allows indigenous youth to pursue university studies and not leave their territory following online training”duck.
However, the growing dependence on Starlink worries the Brazilian government, which fears that Elon Musk’s influence is too great. “We do not know to what extent this [sa nomination au sein du futur gouvernement de M. Trump] could affect the sovereignty of BrazilConcerns Yasmin Curzi, professor of human rights at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Rio de Janeiro and researcher at the Karsh Institute of Democracy at the University of Virginia. Starlink could disclose Internet traffic data to the US government. »
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