In accordance with its domestic and national development objectives, Türkiye is just hours away from embarking on its maiden space mission. Getting ready for the mission as part of Türkiye’s National Space Programme led by President Erdoğan, the country is locked on 19.01.2024 at 00.49 a.m.
With the Dragon spacecraft, Türkiye will send its first astronaut, Alper Gezeravcı, to the International Space Station at 00:49 a.m. on the night of January 18 to January 19.
Space travel is one of the technologies that Türkiye 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 Erdoğan announced the National Space Programme with the slogan “Look up to the Sky and See the Moon.”
Aside from the Turkish astronaut and science mission, the programme, prepared within the framework of Türkiye’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 programme, development of a regional positioning and timing system, access to space and a spaceport programme.
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 Programme, has begun.
Within the scope of TEKNOFEST held on April 29, 2023, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced the names of Alper Gezeravcı and Tuva Cihangir Atasever as the first space travellers of Türkiye. 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 TÜBİTAK Space, Axiom Space and NASA.
“My name is not important”, said Alper Gezeravcı, Türkiye’s first space traveller, 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.”
Additionally, Türkiye will keep accomplishing its goals under the National Space Program in the forthcoming period.
