Education
Mendonça graduated in Electronic Engineering at the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (Industry Training Authority) in 1958.
Mendonça graduated in Electronic Engineering at the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (Industry Training Authority) in 1958.
After, he received his Doctor of Philosophy in Radio sciences from Stanford University, in the United States of America. During his period in the United States, Mendonça established contacts with National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the name of the Brazilian government, contacts that played an important role in the later development of the Brazilian Space Program. After his return to Brazil, he was nominated by President Jânio Quadros to take part in the preliminary committee in charge of the studies for the deployment of the national space program When the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) was founded in 1971, Mendonça became its first Director.
