News
18.01.2024
Turkey, which conducts successful projects as part of its domestic and national development objectives, is just hours away from embarking on its maiden space mission. Getting ready for the mission as part of Turkey’s National Space Program led by President Erdogan, the country is locked on 19.01.2024 at 00.49 a.m, according to media sources.
With the Dragon spacecraft, Turkey will send its first astronaut, Alper Gezeravcı, to the International Space Station at 00:49 a.m. on the night of January 18th to January 19th.
Space travel is one of the technologies that Turkey aspires to develop in the field of science and technology, and the establishment of the Turkish Space Agency (TUA) on December 13, 2018, was a significant milestone in this regard.
On February 9, 2021, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the National Space Program with the slogan “Look up to the Sky and See the Moon.”
Aside from the Turkish astronaut and science mission, the program, prepared within the framework of Turkey’s space policy strategy, includes main goals and missions such as sending a rover developed with national technologies to the surface of the Moon, an indigenous satellite development program, development of a regional positioning and timing system, access to space and a spaceport program.
The countdown to the project to launch a Turkish citizen into space within the scope of the Turkish astronaut and science mission, one of the ten goals of the National Space Program, has begun.
Within the scope of TEKNOFEST held on April 29, 2023, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the names of Alper Gezeravcı and Tuva Cihangir Atasever as the first space travelers of Turkey. Within the scope of the Ax-3 Mission carried out in cooperation with the Turkish Space Agency and Axiom Space, Gezeravcı and his accompanying team will tackle 13 scientific experiments on board the International Space Station (ISS) in coordination with TUBİTAK Space, Axiom Space and NASA.
“My name is not important”, said Alper Gezeravcı, Turkey’s first space traveler, in his social media post on the mission and added: “What is important for the people is to remember that their country is determined enough to take a step into the future and to dream not to the limits of the sky but to the depths of space”, according to his statement.
Additionally, Turkey will keep accomplishing its goals under the National Space Program in the forthcoming period.