President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Monday that Türkiye had never allowed itself to fall behind in the space race, stressing that space should not be the preserve of a handful of powerful nations.
“The space race cannot be a competition between just a few countries,” Erdoğan told the International Astronautical Congress in the southern city of Antalya.
It is the first time Türkiye is hosting the event that brings together scientists and delegates from 111 countries.
Erdoğan set out what he called Türkiye’s principle on space: that it should not be treated as a prize for whoever gets there first.
“Militarizing space and turning it into a vehicle for an arms race would be utterly wrong,” he noted.
Erdoğan said Türkiye is now one of the few countries able to design, develop, build, test and operate its own satellites in orbit.
He pointed to the IMECE satellite, which he said gave Türkiye an important high-resolution Earth observation capability, and to the Göktürk satellites, which he said had expanded its ability to observe and survey from space.
Türkiye has also launched the Türksat 5A and 5B communications satellites. In 2024, it launched and put into service Türksat 6A, its first domestically designed and built communications satellite.
Erdoğan said that satellite had confirmed the country’s engineering capability, industrial base, human resources and confidence in space technology.
Space, he said, is not only about satellites.
In 2024, Türkiye sent Alper Gezeravcı to the International Space Station on the country’s first crewed space mission.
A suborbital research flight by Tuva Cihangir Atasever followed, giving Türkiye experience in microgravity research.
Erdoğan called these steps meaningful but not sufficient, and said Türkiye was pursuing bigger goals.
Moon program
Erdoğan said one of the most ambitious goals of the National Space Program, announced in 2021, is a mission to the Moon.
He said Türkiye had set that goal five years ago and had since turned it into a concrete program.
“We have completed the production, assembly, and integration of the lunar rover we developed as part of our Moon Research Program,” Erdoğan said. He said the spacecraft was now undergoing system-level environmental tests.
The vehicle weighs about 3.5 metric tons and has a domestic content rate of more than 80%, which he called a source of great pride.
He added that experience gained on projects such as IMECE and Türksat 6A was being carried over to the lunar mission, so that Türkiye did not have to start from scratch each time.
Spaceport in Somalia
Erdoğan said that having satellites was not enough to be a space power and that access to space was also essential.
He said Türkiye had given priority to launch access and a spaceport in its space program and had begun construction of a spaceport in Somalia. He said the project would strengthen Türkiye’s access to space and help develop the space ecosystem of the African continent.
The Daily Sabah Newsletter
Keep up to date with what’s happening in Turkey,
it’s region and the world.
SIGN ME UP
You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.