Alper Gezeravci, a 44-year-old Turkish Air Drive fighter pilot and colonel, is scheduled to carry off from the Cape Canaveral Area Station in Florida on Wednesday for a two-week mission.
Along with Swedish, Italian and Spanish astronauts, he’ll fly within the spaceship of the personal firm Axiom Area, which, in cooperation with NASA, will make its third flight.
RT Erdogan targeted on the mission, which comes amid a raging financial disaster and indicators that the Turkish chief’s affect on world occasions, together with the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, is restricted regardless of his finest efforts.
RT Erdogan launched Gezeravci to the Turkish public forward of his re-election final yr, calling the 21-year air drive veteran a “heroic Turkish pilot”.
“We see this as a brand new image of a rising, stronger and stronger Turkey,” RT Erdogan stated of the house mission on Tuesday.
Marc Pierini, a former diplomat and senior researcher on the Carnegie Europe assume tank, stated Gezeravci’s flight illustrated “Turkey’s aerospace prowess,” together with the creation of the world’s main fight drone firm.
However, Pierini added, that claims little regarding Turkey’s function in world affairs.
“It has nothing to do with Turkey’s potential to be an actor able to influencing the worldwide political agenda,” Pierini stated. – The fluctuations of Turkey’s overseas coverage don’t give hope to Ankara to take a number one function within the worldwide enviornment.”
Earlier than final yr’s election, RT Erdogan boasted that he had helped safe a grain deal that lifted Russia’s naval blockade of Ukraine, the one main deal the 2 international locations have signed since February 2022, when the Russians invaded their neighbor.
That deal later collapsed, and RT Erdogan’s makes an attempt to renew peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv, or to cease the struggle between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas, got here to naught.
In the meantime, Turkey has drawn the ire of Western allies by delaying Sweden’s NATO membership, sustaining shut enterprise ties with Russia and calling Israel a terrorist state.
“It is Turkey’s Flip”
Regardless of financial and overseas coverage challenges, Turkey has an bold aerospace program.
“This historic occasion won’t solely validate technological objectives and promote the nationwide satisfaction of the Turkish individuals, but in addition usher in a brand new period of scientific innovation and worldwide cooperation,” stated Halitas Mirahmetoglu, CEO of the Gokmen Area and Aviation Coaching Middle in Bursa, northwest Turkey. .
“Aviation, house, protection and software program industries are interconnected and mutually reinforcing,” Mirahmetoglu stated, pointing to Baykar, a drone maker run by RT Erdogan’s son-in-law.
“The sphere of house exploration, which for a very long time was reserved just for the membership of developed international locations, is now opening as much as rising international locations,” stated H. Mirahmetoglu. “It is Turkey’s flip to affix the massive membership.”
Gezeravci appears to know the symbolic significance of his mission, saying he is able to “carry the desires of the Turkish individuals into the depths of house.”
“This journey shouldn’t be a objective for us, however a method to realize our house analysis objectives,” he stated in an interview with the official Anadolu information company.
In line with NASA, greater than 275 astronauts have served on the ISS, and their missions sometimes final a number of months.
#Turkish #astronaut #fly #ISS
2024-06-23 22:00:31
