Did Turkey Give 16.5 Million Additional Money for Alper Gezeravcı?

In the Ax-3 mission While Alper Gezeravcı, who carried out 13 different scientific studies in space, and Michael López-Alegría, Walter Villadei and Marcus Wandt took part in this mission, a confusing issue was the fees paid for this trip.

Especially while Türkiye pays 55 million dollars for the social media agenda Sweden pays 38.5 million dollars It made a lot of noise. Following this incident, “Türkiye was swindled for 16.5 million dollars.” expression started to appear. So what is the real basis of this incident?

Before the flight on January 19, the seat cost was announced on Space.com.

In this historical moment, which was a first for our country, the fee paid was on the agenda of social media. Axiom Space Although we do not know for sure that Turkey paid 55 million dollars for this journey, which is the third space transportation mission, this is what is expected.

Although Turkish citizens say that this fee is just ‘ticket money’, Space does not make a statement that this fee is the seat cost. Just in the statement “We estimate there will be $55 million per astronaut on the Ax-1 mission in April 2022.” csentences were used. president of Axiom Matt Ondler, He expressed these predictions with the following statements in his conversation with journalists on December 13, 2023:

“Ax-3 will not be cheaper than Ax-1 but hopefully future missions may be cheaper. The main item of cost is launch. However, I think SpaceX will become more efficient in launches every day. We hope that it will become increasingly easier to send people into space. I think it’s hard to put people in space right now. We are hopeful for the future as more and more launch providers come online. This reduces launch costs.”

So where did these rumors come from?

Media ombudsman Faruk NoticiciHe made a statement regarding the claims made in the news about Turkey’s first astronaut Alper Gezeravcı’s space travel that the cost of the flight would be 55 million dollars.

According to Doğruci, this amount is not the total cost of space travel; It represents the amount to be paid to Axiom Space company. However, it is noteworthy that there is no official statement on this issue and the ruling media does not cover the issue in detail.

The informer was also quoted in the opposition media as $55 million He emphasized that the cost claims represent only an estimated price paid per seat, not the total cost of space travel. He states that the actual cost may increase further by adding other expenses to the payments to Axiom Space.

Is the commercial side of space travel being covered up, as is said?

This information obtained that the amount paid is not actually the general cost of space travel, About Space.com’s Ax-1 mission guessed based on old statements. So there is no official statement.

Additionally, when other expenses are added to the payments to be made to the company It is emphasized that the cost of Gezeravcı’s space travel may increase even more. Turkish Space Agency Board Member Prof. Dr. In his statement, Lokman Kuzu stated that the cost of the mission may vary, but currently it may be approximately 70 million dollars.

On the other hand, it is noteworthy that the ruling media does not include information about Axiom Space’s past space travels. This situation, of space travel It also creates the idea in people that the commercial dimension is ignored.

Axiom Space gave this number as an estimate.

To the International Space Station We know that the cost for each astronaut participating in the mission was approximately 55 million dollars. Activities on the Space Station are carried out in cooperation with five different space agencies. These space agencies are the USA, Russia, Canada, Japan and Europe.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has 22 members. EU membership is not required for membership in ESA; Therefore, countries such as Norway, Switzerland and England are also members of ESA. However, Türkiye is not yet a member of ESA. in 2004 TÜBİTAK and ESA Despite the cooperation agreement signed between Turkey and Turkey, no concrete steps have been taken for Turkey’s ESA membership.

Being an ISP partner is thought to be one of the reasons why Sweden pays 16.5 million dollars less than Turkey.

Marcus Wandt

Sweden is one of the partners of the International Space Station (ISS). The Swedish Space Agency carries out various activities to contribute to research and projects on the ISS, and continues its active participation in space research by contributing to scientific and technological studies.

The idea that this is the reason why the ‘seat cost’ when going to space is lower than others is also dominant. But the predictions are not limited to this. In the statement made by the Director of the Swedish Space Agency, we learn that Sweden’s decision to participate was made “at the last minute”. This is also on duty Sweden filled the vacancy in the 4th seat And since it is a last minute development, it shows that the ticket cost has become more affordable.

Since the demand was low, the cost may have been lower than others.

Of course, what we are doing now is a guess. Just like 55 million dollars Space-X Since it is the price of the trip he bought, this trip is thought to be almost similar in cost. From Sweden’s statements, we can make some inferences about what caused this situation, but it is still not clear exactly how much our country paid.

It is worth noting that this fee is only for the ticket. Well pre-flight training not included in the mentioned fee. Considering these situations, we can now logically understand why Sweden flew from Turkey ‘cheaply’, in their own words.

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