The much-anticipated Axiom-3 mission with Türkiye’s first astronaut and three other crew members blasted off on Thursday on a voyage to the International Space Station (ISS), in what President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said marked a “historic” moment for the country.
A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule fixed to the top of a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Axiom quartet lifted off about an hour before sunset from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, beginning a planned 36-hour flight to the orbiting laboratory.
Alper Gezeravcı, the first person from Türkiye to rocket to space, is accompanied by a Swede and Italian, all with military pilot experience and representing their homelands. Their escort on the trip: A retired NASA astronaut who now works for Texas startup Axiom Space, the company that arranged the private flight.
Their capsule should reach the space station on Saturday. They will spend two weeks performing experiments, chatting up schoolchildren and soaking in the views of Earth, before returning home.
Gezeravcı, a former fighter pilot and captain for Turkish Airlines, noted Türkiye just celebrated its 100th anniversary, and, until now, the nation’s view of the sky has been limited to “that we could see with our bare eyes.”
“Now this mission is opening that curtain all the way,” he told reporters before the flight. “This is the beginning of our next centennial.”
Erdoğan has displayed a keen interest in the mission, having presented Gezeravcı, 44, to the Turkish public last year.
“We are taking a step into the second century of our Republic, the Century of Türkiye, with the manned space mission we have undertaken for the first time,” Erdoğan said in a video message on Thursday.
The mission marks “a milestone for the work we are doing in the Space Homeland and will carry out in the future,” Turkish Communications Director Fahrettin Altun said on Thursday.
Altun said it marks a realization of a dream that has been anticipated for years
“Türkiye is witnessing a historic moment,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Industry and Technology Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacır said Col. Gezeravcı’s journey would leave a lasting and positive mark on society in Türkiye.
“Not only Alper’s dreams, but also the dreams of Turkish children and youth will exceed the limits of the sky,” Kacır told Anadolu Agency (AA) hours before the launch.
Liftoff was initially planned for Jan. 9 but was postponed twice to Jan. 17 and then to Jan. 18, among others, to allow more time for final inspections and data analysis, including an issue related to the parachute system used to slow the capsule’s return descent before splashdown, the company said.
Yusuf Kıraç, the president of the Turkish Space Agency (TUA), said Türkiye had been waiting for this for many years.
“Alper will hopefully successfully complete 13 scientific studies to pave the way for our country’s future endeavors,” Kıraç said.
“Today is a milestone for us, but it will continue. Our Moon program, sending our own people with our own launch systems, is the main goal for us.”
Hasan Mandal, head of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBITAK), also called it a historic day, adding: “We are realizing one of the missions that will leave a mark on history in the Century of Türkiye.”
The mission marks the third such flight organized by Houston-based Axiom over the past two years as the company builds on its business of putting astronauts sponsored by foreign governments and private enterprises into Earth orbit.