Turkish astronaut set to take off for suborbital flight

Türkiye’s second space traveller Tuva Cihangir Atasever will lift off from the US state of New Mexico early for a suborbital research flight aboard the Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity.

Atasever will serve as a research astronaut aboard the spacecraft's final flight, designated Galactic 07.

The blastoff will be at 0230GMT on Saturday with a total of six crew members, also including three astronauts — two American and one Italian — and two pilots.

The flight is expected to last about 70 minutes, with the VSS Unity to reach an altitude of roughly 13,700 metres on a carrier aircraft. It will then activate its hybrid propulsion system to rise to approximately 90 kilometres.

Atasever will conduct seven scientific experiments under microgravity conditions during the roughly three-minute free-fall phase.

US-based space tourism firm Virgin Galactic announced in May that it had opened a new facility in Southern California to produce next-generation Delta spacecraft, which can perform eight missions a month.

Scientific experiments

Atasever will wear a modified astronaut suit equipped for three experiments, including the "Beacon" brain imaging experiment.

This experiment uses a near-infrared spectroscopy device on his head to examine blood flow in the brain's prefrontal cortex and cerebrospinal fluid dynamics.

Additionally, samples from Atasever will be collected to study psychological changes from viewing Earth from space.

The IvmeRad Radiation Dosimeter experiment will measure radiation exposure, aiding in predicting future exposure for space travellers in real time.

In the Space Insulin Pen Test, a collaborative project between the Turkish Space Agency (TUA) and Axiom Space, two different insulin pens will be used to assess dose delivery efficiency in this setting for the first time.

This will be the first test of treatment methods for future diabetic space travellers.

Vesicle Analysis in Suborbital Flight

Another experiment, called Vesicle Analysis in Suborbital Flight, will use a specially designed microchip to analyse biological samples taken from Atasever before and after the flight. This study seeks to develop therapies to help astronauts better adapt to space travel before liftoff.

Three other experiments, Message, Metabolom, and Miyeloid, will be repeated during Atasever's flight after they were conducted during an earlier trip to the International Space Station by Türkiye's first astronaut Alper Gezeravci.

Message measured the effects of microgravity on human physiology, while Metabolom was conducted to find out the biomolecular changes induced by space flight.

Miyeloid, meanwhile, examined changes in cell groups suppressing immune system response during inflammatory diseases.