Axiom Space

SpaceX

Alper Gezeravcı became the first Turkish astronaut with the Ax-3 mission.

First Turkish Astronaut

This astronaut crossed the Kármán Line (100 km), the internationally accepted boundary of space.

Crossed Kármán Line

This astronaut visited the International Space Station.

ISS Visitor

Born December 1979 in Silifke, Türkiye, Gezeravcı attended the Air Force Academy in Istanbul, Türkiye, where he completed a Bachelor of Science in Electronics Engineering. In addition, he completed a master's degree from the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. As a fighter pilot with the Turkish Air Force, Gezeravcı has over seven years of flying experience on multiple aircrafts, including the F-5, T-37, T-38, SF-260, T-41, KC-135, and F-16 fighter jet. In addition, he served roles as first officer and captain with Turkish Airlines for seven years. Gezeravcı has also served as a flight leader, flight safety officer, and commercial airlines captain. Caption courtesy of Axiom Space.

Axiom-3

SpaceX and Axiom launched the second all-private astronaut crew to the ISS. The Ax-2 crew spent 8 days working and living on the International Space Station to implement a full mission manifest of science, outreach, and commercial activities.

Crew Dragon is the first privately built and operated orbital spacecraft capable of flying humans. As a reusable SpaceX capsule, it transports crew members to and from the International Space Station. It will also carry paying customers to the Station and low Earth orbit. While it typically accommodates a crew of four, this number can vary depending on the mission.

Crew Dragon

Alper Gezeravcı

Turkey

NASA

This astronaut is in the top 5% for total spacewalking time.

Elite Spacewalker

This astronaut has spent over a month in space.

Space Resident

This astronaut is in the top 5% for number of space walks.

Frequent Walker

This astronaut is in the top 5% for number of missions.

Frequent Flyer

United States of America

Spain

Italy

Sweden

STS-73 (Columbia)

The U.S. Microgravity Laboratory-2 mission was a public-private scientific partnership between the U.S. government, U.S. universities, and private industry.

The first reusable launch and landing spacecraft, the Space Shuttle began a new chapter of human space exploration. It launched like a rocket but landed on a runway like a plane. Shuttle crews deployed dozens of commercial satellites and two interplanetary probes to Venus and Jupiter. The Shuttle served as a mini space station and hosted hundreds of biomedical, psychological, physiological, materials science, and physics experiments that have directly benefited life on Earth. The five flight-worthy Shuttles -- Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour -- flew 135 missions over 30 years. The Shuttles helped construct the Russian Mir space station and brought nearly 80% of the International Space Station to orbit. Shuttles also deployed and serviced the Hubble Space Telescope.

Space Shuttle

Axiom-1

Canada

Israel

Axiom Mission 1 is the first all-private astronaut crew to the ISS. The Ax-1 crew will spend 8 days on station working to conduct 25 planned experiments that include self-assembling technology for satellites and future space habitats and a cancer stem cell study.

STS-113 (Endeavour)

Endeavour rotated the Expedition 5 and 6 International Space Station crews and delivered the P1 truss to the ISS. Construction of the ISS was halted after this mission and did not resume until 2006 due to the loss of Space Shuttle Columbia and her seven-person crew on the next Shuttle flight. After four days of landing delays because of weather, this mission holds the record for most delayed landing attempts of a human spaceflight.

Soyuz TMA-9

Soyuz TMA-9 ferried part of the Expedition 14 crew to and from the International Space Station. Space Tourist Ansari joined for a short duration mission, returning to Earth on Soyuz TMA-8.

Soyuz is a human-carrying capsule built and operated by Russia, capable of transporting up to three people to the Space Station at a time. It has been upgraded numerous times since its first use in the 1960s for the Soviet lunar program and was the only crewed vehicle for the Station from 2011 to 2020.

Soyuz

STS-92 (Discovery)

The 100th Space Shuttle flight brought a docking port, motion control system, communications system, and the Z1 truss structure to the International Space Station.

Michael López-Alegría 

Virgin Galactic

Galactic 01

Virgin Galactic will launch a crew of four to suborbital space from New Mexico on the VSS Unity, a rocket-powered spaceplane.

SpaceShipTwo is designed for suborbital tourism flights to space. Owned by Virgin Orbit, the SpaceShipTwo has so far climbed above the U.S. border to space of 80 km but not over the 100 km internationally-recognized point where space begins.

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