Turkey has begun preparations to send astronaut to ISS in 2023, says President Erdogan

The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced that his country has started preparations to send the first Turkish citizen to the International Space Station (ISS). "As part of the national space program, Turkey is officially starting the process of sending our citizens to the International Space Station", Erdogan said as per TASS. The President made this announcement following a cabinet meeting on May 23 and revealed that applications for the program to turn residents into astronauts are being accepted and can be filled in via the link in the tweet below. The minimum age required to sign up for the program is 45 years and the applications for the ISS mission will be reportedly accepted till June 23 this year. 

Notably, the first ISS flight with a Turkish resident is scheduled for 2023, the year when Turkey will celebrate its 100th foundation anniversary. Earlier in 2018, Russian space agency Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin had said that Russia will help Turkey in sending the Turkish astronaut to the space station in a Russia-made Soyuz spacecraft. This mission is being kickstarted under Ankara's National Space Program which was launched by Erdogan in 2021. Apart from increasing Turkey's participation in low-Earth orbit (LEO) projects, the program also intends to launch an indigenous rocket to the Moon. 

Turkey's National Space Program

To keep up with the developmental works in the global space sector, Turkey has initiated the National Space Program. Under this special project, the Turkish space agency is planning to advance in various sectors such as launching astronauts into space, developing launch infrastructure, establishing a regional positioning and timing system satellites, advancing in space technology, and increasing space weather monitoring. 

The program has the Turkish government ready to spend around $6 billion to achieve the aforementioned objectives. Last year in February, Turkey had even unveiled a 10-year roadmap wherein it underlined its objectives on the Moon mission. The Turkish Space Agency has made a plan to send a hybrid rocket into space by the end of 2023 and make it land on the Moon on a tentative deadline of 2028.