The third citizen of Turkey will make a flight to space

Businessman Gekhan Erdem will become the third Turk in space: historic flight scheduled for August 3

Gekhan Erdem, a board member of Erdem Holding and space exploration enthusiast, will make history on August 3 as the third Turkish citizen to conquer outer space. His flight will be part of the New Shepard NS-34 mission, organized by Blue Origin, a company owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos. The launch is scheduled for 15:30 Turkish time, reports Anadolu Agency.

Erdem will set several national records at once: he will become the first Turkish businessman to go to space, and the first Turkish citizen to fly on a Blue Origin spacecraft. Unlike his predecessors Alper Gezeravci and Tuva Cihangir Atasever, who participated in flights under the National Space Program, Erdem independently organized his participation in the space mission.

The launch will be carried out from the Van Horn spaceport in Texas (USA) and will be available for viewing live on Blue Origin's official channels worldwide, including Turkey.

The fully autonomous New Shepard spacecraft, performing its 14th crewed flight, will deliver an international crew to orbit. Joining Erdem in space will be: American entrepreneur J.D. Russell, TRON founder and Prime Minister of Liberland H.E. Justin Sun, Puerto Rican meteorologist and NASA ambassador Deborah Martorell, British philanthropist Lionel Pitchford, and Indian traveler Arvinder Singh Bahal, who has visited all 193 countries in the world.

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

Notably, the mission number "NS-34" coincided with the code for Istanbul 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

New Shepard, created by Blue Origin specifically for suborbital crewed flights, is a fully reusable rocket system. The rocket is about 20 meters tall with a launch mass of 35 tons. The system includes a booster and a passenger capsule. The entire flight will last about 11 minutes.

During the mission, the capsule will cross the Karman line at an altitude of 100 km - the universally recognized boundary of space. Expedition participants will experience several minutes of weightlessness and will be able to observe the curve of the Earth against the blackness of space through panoramic windows.

After the mission is completed, both the launch vehicle and the capsule will be returned to Earth for reuse. This is a vivid example of technologies that have made the development of commercial space tourism possible.

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

"Gekhan 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," noted astrophysicist Dr. Umut Yildiz.