"My main objective is to ensure that all phases of the launch campaign run smoothly and safely", said Tony dos Santos, who has worked at the European Space Agency (ESA), responsible for certifying the flight, and since 2014, to Lusa. in the Ariane 6 project.
In practice, the engineer born and raised in Belgium, but son of Portuguese parents, will "coordinate all launch activities", including controlling the preparation of flight monitoring systems, post-flight evaluation and confirmation of flight parameters. satellites that will follow on board, such as data communications, location, security and meteorological systems.
One of the satellites that Ariane will transport and place in orbit is ISTSat-1, a nanosatellite built by students and professors from Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) that will be used to test the viability of these devices for detecting planes in remote areas.
In the inaugural launch of Ariane 6, crucial to certify the rocket for commercial flights, to be operated by the French company Arianespace, which built it, other Portuguese are involved, namely two integrated in the communications teams, one in organizing the analysis of test data and another linked to the rocket’s mechanical systems.
Tony dos Santos explained that Ariane 6, successor to Ariane 5, on which he worked and which made its last flight in July 2023, will ensure "Europe's autonomous and guaranteed access to space", enabling it to "comply with all its missions in scientific research, strategic initiatives, economic growth, maintaining international space collaborations and sustaining Europe's technological leadership".
According to the mission manager, the new range of European rockets was built to have "much greater versatility and significantly reduced costs", allowing the rate of launches into space to be doubled.
After the maiden flight, Tony dos Santos will oversee all updates that need to be made to the new rocket before the second flight, scheduled to take place by the end of the year.
Today, the first launch of Ariane 6, from the European space base, in Kourou, French Guiana, is scheduled for between 7:00 pm and 11:00 pm (Lisbon time).
As technical manager of the Kourou base, Tony dos Santos followed the construction of the launch platform for the new rocket. At ESA he is involved in energy transition initiatives, studying the recovery of rocket modules and exploring the possibility of manned flights from French Guiana.
He lives in Kourou, lived in Paris, where he worked at the extinct French company Aérospatiale, was born, grew up and completed his studies in Belgium, "only visiting Portugal on vacation".
"I have dual nationality, Belgian and Portuguese. You know... Portuguese chameleons", he joked.
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