Rocket replicas
On display.
Rafael Vianna Croffi from São Paulo, Brazil — CC BY 2.0 · Flaviohmg — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Ben Tavener from Curitiba, Brazil — CC BY 2.0 · flickr.paulohenrique.net — CC BY 2.0 · Rafael Vianna Croffi from São Paulo, Brazil — CC BY 2.0 · Ben Tavener from Curitiba, Brazil — CC BY 2.0 · MTur Destinos — Public domain
The Barreira do Inferno Launch Centre is a Brazilian Air Force rocket base in Parnamirim on the «Rota do Sol», 12 kilometres from Natal near Ponta Negra beach. Founded in 1965, it was South America's first rocket air base and launches small and medium rockets. Its first launch, a US-built Nike Apache sounding rocket, took place on 15 December 1965, followed by more than four hundred rockets, including joint programmes with NASA studying the atmosphere and the ozone layer between the 1960s and 1990s. The centre tracks launches from Alcântara and Europe's Ariane rockets since their first flight, and returned to launching in 2024. Its name, «Hell's Barrier», came from fishermen, because the dawn sun turns the cliffs fire-red. The centre is open to residents and tourists, showing replicas of rockets launched there and a photo collection on its history, and its protected beach has become an important nesting site for sea turtles. Check hours and visiting conditions before going.
On display.
The name.
On the beach.
Rota do Sol, Parnamirim, 12 km from Natal
Fishermen named it because the dawn sun turns the cliffs fire-red.