Turkey will send an astronaut into space. Alper Gezeravci is scheduled to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) overnight from Thursday to Friday from the Cape Canaveral base, Florida, aboard a private shuttle from the company Axiom. A mission which symbolizes the space ambitions of President Erdogan’s Turkey.
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“ Historic event ” And ” national pride “. The press and Turkish officials have only these words on their lips to celebrate the flight of Alper Gezeravci to the international space station, reports our correspondent in Istanbul, Anne Andlauer. Alper Gezeravci, a 43-year-old fighter pilot, 21 of whom in the air force, must take off during the night from Thursday to Friday for the International Space Station (ISS) from the base at Cape Canaveral, Florida, in the southeastern United States, for a 14-day mission.
His departure, initially scheduled for Thursday, was postponed by 24 hours. Friday at 00:49 Turkey time (9:49 p.m. UT) to carry out technical checks », announced Wednesday evening the Turkish Minister of Industry, Mehmet Fatih Kacir who is in Florida, at the head of a large official delegation. Colonel Gezeravci will join the international station in the company of a Swede, an Italian and a Spaniard aboard a private shuttle from the company Axiom, which will thus ensure its third mission in partnership with NASA, the agency American space.
Sending a first Turkish astronaut to the ISS was the first of the 10 ambitions of the space strategy presented three years ago by Recep Tayyip Erdogan. A strategy made possible by the creation, in 2018, of a Turkish Space Agency (TUA). Seen from Ankara, the objective of this mission far exceeds the success of the 13 experiments in total that Alper Gezeravci will have to conduct during his 14 days on board the station. For President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the first Turkish astronaut is above all the symbol “ of an increasingly large, strong and assertive Türkiye » on the world stage.
Turkey wants to be among the great space nations, and sees space as a market as well as a field of competition between powers. Its space industry already has solid experience, particularly in the design and construction of satellites. Another stated objective: sending a first Turkish spacecraft to the Moon by 2026.
(and with agencies)