The third citizen of Turkey will make a flight to space

Gokhan Erdem, a member of the board of directors of Erdem Holding and a space enthusiast, will become the third Turkish citizen to travel to space on August 3. His journey will take place as part of the New Shepard NS-34 mission, organized by Blue Origin, a company owned by Jeff Bezos. The launch is scheduled for 15:30 Turkish time, reports Anadolu.

Erdem will go down in history as the third Turkish cosmonaut, the first Turkish businessman in space, and the first Turkish citizen to fly with Blue Origin. Unlike the first two astronauts under the National Space Program - Alper Gezeravci and Tuva Cihangir Atasever - Erdem organized his participation in the flight entirely through his own efforts.

The launch will take place from the Van Horn base in the American state of Texas and will be broadcast live on Blue Origin's official platforms. This event can be followed worldwide, including Turkey.

The New Shepard spacecraft, which is a fully autonomous system without a pilot, will perform its 14th crewed flight. Joining Erdem on board will be American entrepreneur and investor J.D. Russell, TRON founder and Prime Minister of Liberland H.E. Justin Sun, Puerto Rican meteorologist and NASA ambassador Deborah Martorell, British philanthropist and teacher Lionel Pitchford, and Indian traveler Arvinder Singh Bahal, who has visited all 193 countries in the world.

The NS-34 flight emblem includes symbolism reflecting the stories of all six participants. Erdem's Turkish cultural heritage is represented by the silhouette of the Istanbul Strait.

The mission number "NS-34" coincided with the code of Istanbul's license plates, which became a symbolic coincidence.

Among other symbols are a globe - representing Arvinder Bahal's passion for world travel, the outline of Puerto Rico - Deborah Martorell's homeland, Mount Everest - a sign of Pitchford's many years of work in Nepal, a book - a reminder of J.D. Russell's educational foundation established in memory of his daughter, a banana - a reference to Justin Sun's interest in conceptual art, and the sun - a symbol of new beginnings, uniting all crew members

Developed by Blue Origin for suborbital crewed flights, New Shepard is a fully reusable rocket system. It stands about 20 m tall with a launch mass of 35 tons. It consists of a booster and a passenger capsule. The flight lasts about 11 minutes.

During the flight, the capsule will cross the conventional boundary of space - the Karman line at an altitude of 100 km. Participants will experience weightlessness for several minutes and will be able to observe the curvature of the Earth and the darkness of space through wide windows.

After landing, both the rocket and capsule will be recovered and can be reused. This is one of the first examples of technologies that have made commercial space tourism possible.

Space Agenda Director Halit Mirahmetoglu noted that the mission reflects the growing public interest in space following the launch of the National Space Program.

"Gokhan Erdem's flight as the third Turkish cosmonaut and first commercial astronaut could pave the way for regular space flights from Turkey in the future," emphasized astrophysicist Dr. Umut Yildiz.