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Turkey's president eyes manned space mission

The project, if successful, will become one of the biggest and most ambitious in the history of modern Turkey

© Mokhail Klimentiev/Presidential press service/TASS

ANKARA, June 8. /TASS/. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced plans to send a Turkish astronaut into space, the Diken online newspaper reported on Friday.

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What we know about space conquerors

"We are now carrying out work to launch satellites into space. Possibly, thanks to our country’s youth, we will at some point be able send an astronaut," Erdogan said during a meeting with members of youth organizations in the presidential palace in Ankara

In late May, Azerbaijan’s Trend news agency said, citing a Turkish government source, that the country planned to launch its own astronaut training program after 2023 at the cost of about $6 billion.

The project, if successful, will become one of the biggest and most ambitious in the history of modern Turkey.

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Recep Tayyip Erdogan

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