STORY: Türkiye's 1st space traveler set to take off in January
SHOOTING TIME: Dec. 14, 2023
DATELINE: Dec. 15, 2023
LENGTH: 0:00:59
LOCATION: Ankara
CATEGORY: SCIENCE

SHOTLIST:
1. various of Col. Alper Gezeravci (courtesy of ihlas news agency)

STORYLINE:

Türkiye's first space traveler is set to blast off into orbit on Jan. 9 of the next year, a Turkish official announced on Thursday.

"Starting on Jan. 9, Col. Alper Gezeravci will take part in a space mission with Spanish, Italian, and Swedish astronauts," Turkish Industry and Technology Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacir said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

As part of Türkiye's first manned space mission, Gezeravci will stay at the International Space Station for 14 days and carry out 13 different scientific experiments.

This mission, organized by Axiom Space, an American privately funded space infrastructure developer, will take a Turkish citizen to the International Space Station for the first time, the semi-official Anadolu Agency reported earlier.

In addition to Gezeravci, former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, a Spanish and U.S. citizen, Italian officer Walter Villadei and Swedish ESA (European Space Agency) project astronaut Marcus Wandt will also be part of the mission Ax-3 crew, the agency reported.

After completing his electronics engineering education, Gezeravci had his master's degree in the United States and served as an F-16 pilot in the Turkish Air Force Command.

Türkiye selected Gezeravci as the country's first prospective space traveler earlier this year during the technology event TEKNOFEST.

The country established the Turkish Space Agency in 2018 and announced its space program in 2019 with the intention of sending a crewed mission into space.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Ankara.
(XHTV)