Turkey to land on Moon in 2023

By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

Turkey aims to land on the Moon by 2023, Chairman of the Turkish Space Agency, Serdar Huseyin Yildirim told Turkish media on August 23.

"The year 2023 is a very important for us. In particular, we aim to reach the moon within the scope of the moon mission,” said Yildirim.

He said that Turkey was planning to send its citizen to space for the first time from the international space station by 2023 to conduct scientific research.

Yildirim stressed that the National Space Program entailed ten key targets such as space weather, ecosystem development, observation capacity, and the establishment of a spaceport to be mentioned among them.

He said that the space program would be implemented in ten years in Turkey, although some massive projects such as the moon mission and astronaut programs might require more time.

Yildirim said that with the full support of the government, Turkey would soon catch up with the space industry leading countries such as the US, Russia, China, Japan, India and the EU members.

Reminding the Turksat 5A and 5B satellites, Yildirim said that the Turksat 6A satellite would have 60 percent of domesticity rate and be launched by 2022.  

“A flight model is currently being studied on the 6A satellite. Now the final stage has been reached, integration is being done”, he added.