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Turkish President Erdogan thanks country's first space traveller Gezeravci

During a phone call with Gezeravci, Erdogan expresses hope that he would meet Gezeravci in person in Ankara to get more details about his more than two-week stay at the International Space Station (ISS).

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“You will have very important tasks from now on,” Erdogan said, thanking him for successfully completing the mission. / Photo: AA Archive

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spoken over the phone with the country’s first space traveller Alper Gezeravci, who returned to Earth on Friday after completing a successful mission.

During a phone call with Gezeravci on Saturday, Erdogan expressed hope that he would meet Gezeravci in person in Ankara to get more details about his more than two-week stay at the International Space Station (ISS).

“You will have very important tasks from now on,” Erdogan said, thanking him for successfully completing the mission.

Gezeravci said this journey was “an inspiring duty” to Türkiye and future generations.

On Friday, SpaceX's Dragon Capsule, carrying Italian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish space travellers, splashed down successfully off Florida at 1330GMT.

The Axiom-3 space mission had been launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 19 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Its crew docked at the ISS the next day on January 20.

Erdogan said after the crew landed that Türkiye would send many more people to space.