Dragon spacecraft carrying Türkiye's first astronaut docks at the ISS

The SpaceX Dragon Freedom capsule carrying the crew of Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3), including Türkiye's first space traveller, Alper Gezeravci, has arrived at the International Space Station (ISS).

The orbiting station welcomed the crew at 1042 GMT (1342 Türkiye time) on Saturday, approximately 37 hours after they successfully blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, United States, on January 18.

After the docking process, the Ax-3 space mission crew entered the International Space Station (ISS) at 1216 GMT (1516 Türkiye time).

The astronauts will now get straight to work, attending to their country-related science missions. Gezeravci will conduct 13 scientific experiments prepared by Turkish scientists and research institutions.

In a pre-launch press conference of the Ax-3 Crew, the trailblazing Turkish astronaut revealed that he was bringing some surprise items from Türkiye to the ISS as a symbol of the country's renowned hospitality.

He also brought along personal mementoes for the historic journey, including family photographs, items representing his nomadic Turkish heritage and patches of his first Air Force squadron alongside a Turkish flag.

Life on the ISS

Ax-3’s all-European crew includes Axiom Space chief astronaut and former ISS commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, representing Spain and the US as the Ax-3 mission commander. In 2022, he led Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1), the first private mission to the ISS.

The mission pilot is Colonel Walter Villadei from the Italian Air Force. Gezeravci, an F-16 fighter pilot from the Turkish Air Force, is taking part in Ax-3 as a mission specialist alongside Swedish astronaut Marcus Wandt from the European Space Agency.

Throughout their two-week stay on the orbiting station, the crew will start the day at 0600 GMT, as is tradition at the ISS. After breakfast and socialising with crewmates, they will meet with mission control to discuss the day’s schedule and missions.

During the day, they will exercise for at least two hours, and in the evening, they will have dinner after completing their tasks. At 2200 GMT, they will retreat to their sleeping compartment and finish the day in sleeping bags.

Among the 13 experiments Türkiye will conduct on the ISS is PRANET, created by middle school students from Türkiye's eastern city of Mus, which examines the antibacterial effects of propolis in microgravity environments.

The experiments concern a wide range of scientific fields, from materials science to biotechnology, electronic engineering, and cancer research. Notably, the MYELOID experiment inquires into the effect of radiation exposure on cancer cells in the space environment.

Another experiment, EXTREMOPHYTE, involves an endemic plant from Türkiye's Salt Lake, which can remove salt from soil and water, investigating the response of plants to different levels of salt stress in the space environment and their future space ecosystem potential.

The first and most important factor that awaits the astronauts on the ISS, as well as in space, is zero gravity.

Since human bodies are acclimated to the gravity on Earth, the zero gravity environment triggers muscle and bone loss. To maintain their bodies, space travellers must exercise for two hours each day on the ISS.

Consuming food and drinks in zero gravity is also quite unusual, since liquid disperses and floats in the air, which is why those commodities are stored in special packages.

Systems have been developed to meet basic nutritional needs, as well as special preferences for life in space. However, most food is still canned and contained in proprietary packaging.

The ISS contains six sleeping compartments, two bathrooms, a gym and a window that provides a 360-degree view.

The current crew on the station includes Commander Andreas Mogensen, Jasmin Moghbeli, Furukawa Satoshi, Loral O'Hara, Konstantin Borisov, Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub.

They began their mission on September 27 as the 70th long-duration expedition on the ISS.