Turkey has developed a hybrid rocket that it plans to use for a mission to the moon. Minister of Industry and Technologies of the Republic Mustafa Varank told Anadolu agency about it.
According to him, the mission will be implemented in two stages: in 2023 and 2028. As part of the first, Ankara intends to deliver an unmanned spacecraft to the moon. “We will carry out the first launch into a near-earth orbit in cooperation with international companies. However, our device will be delivered by launching our unique national rocket into low-earth orbit, ”he said.
On February 28, the Minister visited the facilities of Delta V Space Technologies Inc., which has been engaged in space projects since 2017. According to him, the company has developed a unique hybrid engine technology.
On February 9, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan presented Turkey's ten-point national space program. Within its framework, Ankara intends to build its own cosmodrome and send a Turkish cosmonaut into space, launch new satellites for military and civilian needs. “The main and most important mission of the program is the first contact with the Moon in the centenary year of our republic (2023 – RBC ),” Erdogan emphasized.
The program aims to bring Turkey “to the top league in the space sector,” Varank said.
The development of the space program is part of the tasks of the Turkish Space Agency, which was established in 2018.
In October 2019, General Director of Glavkosmos Dmitry Loskutov said that with the assistance of Russia, the first Turkish cosmonaut could fly into space by 2023.
