ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday unveiled an ambitious ten-year space program for his country that includes missions to the moon, the deployment of Turkish astronauts into space and systems development internationally viable satellite.
Erdogan announced the program, seen as part of his vision to place Turkey in an expanded regional and global role, during a live-televised event with special effects.
He said Turkey had planned to establish “a first contact with the moon” in 2023, when the country marks the centenary of the founding of the Turkish republic. The first stage of the mission would be “through international cooperation,” while the second stage would use Turkish rockets, Erdogan said.
“Our main and most important goal for our national space program is the contact of the Republic, in its centennial year, with the moon,” the Turkish leader said. “God willing, let’s go to the moon.”
Erdogan also stated Turkey’s goal of sending Turkish citizens into space with international cooperation, working with other countries to build a spaceport and creating a “global brand” in satellite technology. .
“I hope that this roadmap, which will take Turkey to the top league in the world space race, will come to life successfully,” he said.
Turkey established the Turkish Space Agency, or TUA, in 2018, with the goal of joining a handful of other countries with space programs.
Critics have questioned the government’s decision to spend large sums of money on this goal at a time when the country’s economy is suffering. But supporters say a space program will provide jobs for researchers and are likely to reduce the brain drain of migrant scientists.
Erdogan did not provide details on how Turkey plans to achieve its goals. Last month, he and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk spoke by phone and discussed cooperation in space technologies with Turkish companies.
Meanwhile, a metal monolith that mysteriously appeared and disappeared in a field in southeastern Turkey turned out to be a publicity stunt before the event.
The 3-meter-high (about 10-foot-tall) metal slab with the inscription “Look at the sky, you will see the moon” written in an ancient Turkish script was found Friday by a farmer in Sanliurfa province. The monolith was located near the site of Gobekli Tepe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which houses megalithic structures from the 10th century BC, thousands of years before Stonehenge.
The structure was reported to have disappeared Tuesday morning, adding to the mystery.
An image of the monolith was later projected on the screen as Erdogan said: “Now I present to you the vision, strategy and goals of ten years of Turkey and I say, ‘Look at the sky, you will see the moon.'”
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Robert Badendieck contributed from Istanbul