CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Turkey’s first astronaut, along with a Swede and an Italian, launched Thursday to the International Space Station on a SpaceX charter flight.
The Falcon rocket launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in the late afternoon, carrying three men, all with military pilot experience, representing their homeland. My travel companion is a retired NASA astronaut who now works for the company that arranged his private flights.
Their capsule should arrive at the space station on Saturday. They will spend two weeks conducting experiments, talking to schoolchildren, and soaking up the Earth’s scenery before returning home.
It has cost each of the three countries more than $55 million. This is the approximate price per person for the trip, the third such trip organized by Houston company Axiom Space in collaboration with NASA and SpaceX. Russia has welcomed paying visitors to the space station for more than 20 years. NASA wasn’t like that until two years ago.
Turkey’s Alper Gezeravci, a former fighter pilot and captain for Turkish Airlines, was the country’s first person to fly a rocket into space. He pointed out that Turkey has just celebrated its 100th anniversary, and up until now, the people’s view of the sky has been limited to “what can be seen with the naked eye.”
“This mission is finally beginning,” he told reporters before departing. “This is the beginning of our next 100 years.”
Marcus Vandt of Sweden, a former fighter pilot and test pilot for Swedish Aircraft Corporation who was selected as a reserve astronaut by the European Space Agency in 2022, and Colonel Walter Villaday of the Italian Air Force, who flew to the edge of space. flew. Last summer with Virgin Galactic.
Among the iconic items they feature are Sweden’s Nobel Prize medal, Italy’s fusilli pasta, and symbols of Turkey’s nomadic culture.
They include Michael López-Alegría, who launched four times as a NASA astronaut before joining Axiom Space and escorting his first charter flight.