Russia offers Turkey to send astronaut to space station

By Emre Gurkan Abay

MOSCOW (AA) - Russian space agency (Roscosmos) on Tuesday offered Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to send a Turkish astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS).

"We have a joint offer to you -- to send a Turkish astronaut to the orbit to celebrate the Republic’s anniversary. The Cosmonaut Training Center is ready to work on this," Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos, said referring to Turkey's 100th anniversary of the Republic to be celebrated on Oct. 29, 2023.

The offer came during the joint visit of Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to the MAKS-2019 International Aviation and Space Salon.

"We will participate in your esteemed work. I thank you on behalf of our country, thank you for the work you have done," Erdogan said.

Erdogan and Putin attended the inauguration ceremony of the MAKS-2019, one of the world’s leading events in its field.

On December 2018, Turkey’s official gazette published a presidential decree announcing the establishment of the country’s space agency aiming to prepare and carry out the National Space Program in line with the policies determined by the president of Turkey.

The ISS stationed in low Earth orbit, serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory for scientists to conduct experiments in various fields.

It is also a staging base for possible future missions to the Moon, Mars, and asteroids.

* Writing and contribution by Jeyhun Aliyev from Ankara