Axiom Space announced details about the Ax-3 mission, which will send a Turkish citizen into space for the first time. The mission that will send pilot Alper Gezeravcı to the International Space Station will be carried out on January 9, if there are no problems.
Turkey’s moves in space have increased in recent years with the National Space Program introduced in 2021. In this context, the first Turk to go into space was announced last April. In the statement made during TEKNOFEST, the pilot Alper Gezeravcı’s It was announced that he would be the first Turkish space traveler. Engineer Tuva Cihangir Atasever was also announced as a reserve.
Now, there has been an important development regarding the mission of Gezeravcı, who will be the first Turk in space. US space company Axiom Space shared details about its mission, which will include Gezeravcı.
The Ax-3 mission is planned to begin on Tuesday, January 9
Axiom Space, the mission called Ax-3 On January 9, 2024 announced by updating its official website that it plans to carry out the project. To the International Space Station (ISS) Ax-3 will be the company’s third commercial astronaut mission and its first mission composed entirely of Europeans.
In addition to Gezeravcı, three more people are in the Ax-3 crew. The first of these is a former NASA astronaut who is a citizen of Spain and the USA. Michael Lopez-Alegria will be. The others are Italian officers Walter Villadei and Swedish European Space Agency (ESA) project astronaut Marcus Wandt will be. Gezeravcı will take part in Ax-3 as a “Mission Specialist”.
If there are no changes, the Ax-3 crew will be launched to the ISS from the Kennedy Space Center in the USA on January 9 with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. After arriving at the ISS, astronauts will carry out their missions, which include microgravity research, educational support and commercial activities, and They will stay for 14 days.
Who is Alper Gezeravcı?
One in the air force F-16 pilot Alper Gezeravcı, Turkey’s first space traveler, was born in Mersin in 1979. After graduating from the Air Force Academy Electronics Engineering department, Gezeravcı completed his master’s degree at the Air Force Technology Institute in the USA. Afterwards, he served as an F-16 pilot and standardized fleet academic branch commander in the Air Force Command.