When Turkey’s first astronaut blasts off for the International Space Station (ISS) this week, he will embody his country’s pride and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s outsized geopolitical ambitions.
Alper Gezeravci, a 43-year-old fighter pilot and colonel in Turkey’s air force, is due to take off on Wednesday from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida for a two-week mission.
He will be joining Swedish, Italian and Spanish astronauts aboard a shuttle provided by the private Axiom Space company, which will be conducting its third flight under a partnership with NASA.