Marcos Pontes

Marcos Pontes
Official portrait as senator
Senator for São Paulo
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 February 2023
Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation
In office 1 January 2019 – 31 March 2022
President	Jair Bolsonaro
Preceded by	Gilberto Kassab
Succeeded by	Paulo Alvim
Personal details
Born	(1963-03-11) 11 March 1963 (age 61) Bauru, São Paulo, Brazil
Political party	PL (2022–present)
Other political affiliations	DEM (2009–12) PSB (2013–18) PSL (2018–22) UNIÃO (2022)
Occupation	Fighter pilot, astronaut
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Brazil
Branch/service	Brazilian Air Force
Rank	Lieutenant colonel
Status	Retired[1]
Space career
NASA astronaut
Time in space	9d 21h 17m[1]
Selection	1998 NASA Group
Missions	Soyuz TMA-8, Missão Centenário, Soyuz TMA-7
Mission insignia
Scientific career
Fields	Systems Engineering
Thesis	Polarization effects on infrared target contrast (1998)
Academic advisors	Alfred W. Cooper, David D. Cleary (thesis)
Website	www.marcospontes.com

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.^[2][3] He left the post on 31 March 2022 and in the same year was elected federal senator for his state, São Paulo.