Turkey's first astronaut takes off for ISS on private flight

A private mission to the International Space Station (ISS) was successfully launched on Thursday with Turkey's first astronaut on board, US space agency NASA said.

A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule lifted off on top of a Falcon 9 rocket at 4.49 p.m. local time (21:49 GMT/UTC) from Cape Canaveral Space Center in Florida.

NASA said that docking at the ISS was expected early on Saturday morning with the crew expected to stay at the ISS for two weeks.

Who is on board?

Spanish-born former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria is mission commander and is joined by Italy's Walter Villadei, Sweden's Marcus Wandt and Turkey's Alper Gezeravci — who becomes the first Turkish national to travel into space.

Gezeravci served as a fighter pilot in the Turkish Air Force and has 15 years experience on multiple aircraft, according to Axiom Space. He spoke along with the other crew members from on board the vessel in a video shared online by SpaceX.

"It was a great feeling, starting from the end of the countdown, all the way to here. A great ride," Gezeravci said, adding that he had dreamed "for so long" of being able to fly without a "ceiling." 

Third private mission by Axiom Space

The mission has been arranged by private space-flight company Axiom Space and is being conducted in cooperation with NASA and Elon Musk's SpaceX company.

It is the third such flight by Houston-based Axiom over the past two years and they describe the mission as "the first all-European commercial astronaut mission to the International Space Station."

A seat on board the space craft costs at least $55 million (€50.5 million).

SpaceX said that more than 30 scientific experiments "focused on human physiology and technological industrial advancements" would be conducted during the 14-day mission.