Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday announced the country’s National Space Programme, whose first goal is landing on the moon by 2023, the country’s centennial year.
Turkey is aiming to build a spaceport with international cooperation, state-run Anadolu news agency cited the Turkish president as saying during the inauguration for the programme in Ankara.
“Our first goal is to land on the moon by 2023,’’ Erdoğan said. “I believe Turkish engineers will manage to carry out this mission.’’
The country’s second goal was the “creation of a global brand that would compete in the field of next-generation satellite development,” he said.
Erdoğan also said Turkey aims to send a citizen to space as part of a scientific mission.
Turkey’s National Space Programme aims to further grow the space industry’s economy, Erdoğan said adding Turkey would establish a region for space technology development.
Erdoğan also revealed that a metallic monolith found near the ancient site of Göbeklitepe in Turkey’s southeast province of Şanlıurfa was part of the advertisement of the National Space Programme.
The object, which was inscribed with the old Turkic script of Göktürk, was discovered on Friday, prompting a large number of people to flock to the area.
The Turkish Space Agency is a government agency in Turkey for national aerospace research, formally created by a presidential decree in Dec. 2018.
Ahval