Turkey's first astronaut arrived at the International Space Station on Saturday on board a SpaceX rocket, marking a milestone in the country’s fledgling space programme.
Alper Gezeravci, a 44-year-old fighter pilot with the Turkish Air Force, and three other crew members, will spend about two weeks on the ISS as part of a private mission called Axiom 3.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carried the crew to space from the Kennedy Space Centre, with a Dragon capsule that arrived at the orbiting laboratory after 37 hours after the launch.
The Crew Dragon autonomously docked with the ISS at 5.42am EDT (2.42pm Dubai time), as the two space vehicles were about 400km over the South Pacific, a live Nasa webcast showed.
Officials expected it would take about two hours for the sealed passageway between the space station and the crew capsule to be pressurised and checked for leaks before hatches could be opened.
Then the astronauts would then move on board the orbiting laboratory to begin their mission.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan congratulated his country on the achievement.
“We are stepping into the second century of our Republic, with our first manned space mission. May God open our path and our fortune,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Turkey signed a deal with Axiom Space, a Houston-based company that arranges space trips, in 2022. Ankara intended to have a Turkish national in orbit to coincide with the country's centenary celebrations.
The company also helped arrange space missions for the UAE and Saudi Arabia, including Emirati astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi's six-month stay aboard the ISS.
Who is Turkey's first astronaut?
Mr Gezeravci, who is serving as mission specialist on AX-3, has a master's degree from the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.
He has 15 years of flying experience on several different aircraft, including the F-16 fighter.
Apart from his military career, he also served as a captain with Turkish Airlines for seven years.
Mr Gezeravci said he has always been fascinated with flying and dreamt of one day travelling to space.
“It is going to be an amazing feeling being able to fly in space without any wings,” he said.
“In the middle of the night, I saw the news of our president announcing the news of launching the first Turkish [person] to space.
“That is important. It's like opening a curtain that had been blocking the dream of our children.”
What will they do in space?
Mr Gezeravci and his crew will be conducting more than 30 science experiments on the ISS, assigned to them by researchers.
One of them includes the Cosmic Brain Organoids project, which investigates the effects of microgravity on neural stem cells.
It aims to identify novel cellular pathways, so doctors can develop new therapeutic interventions for neurodegenerative diseases.
The project will generate brain organoids, or small 3D aggregates of neural cells, using induced pluripotent stem cells derived from patients with Parkinson's Disease and primary progressive multiple sclerosis.
These organoids can be used to explore how the human nervous system develops or starts to degenerate.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Innotech Profile
Date started: 2013
Founder/CEO: Othman Al Mandhari
Based: Muscat, Oman
Sector: Additive manufacturing, 3D printing technologies
Size: 15 full-time employees
Stage: Seed stage and seeking Series A round of financing
Investors: Oman Technology Fund from 2017 to 2019, exited through an agreement with a new investor to secure new funding that it under negotiation right now.
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
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Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
What are the main cyber security threats?
Cyber crime - This includes fraud, impersonation, scams and deepfake technology, tactics that are increasingly targeting infrastructure and exploiting human vulnerabilities.
Cyber terrorism - Social media platforms are used to spread radical ideologies, misinformation and disinformation, often with the aim of disrupting critical infrastructure such as power grids.
Cyber warfare - Shaped by geopolitical tension, hostile actors seek to infiltrate and compromise national infrastructure, using one country’s systems as a springboard to launch attacks on others.
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
What are the influencer academy modules?
- Mastery of audio-visual content creation.
- Cinematography, shots and movement.
- All aspects of post-production.
- Emerging technologies and VFX with AI and CGI.
- Understanding of marketing objectives and audience engagement.
- Tourism industry knowledge.
- Professional ethics.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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