ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s first astronaut returned home to a hero’s welcome Monday, portrayed as a symbol of the country’s advances in technology and aerospace. Alper Gezeravci was greeted by bouquet-laden children at Ankara’s Esenboga Airport as he returned from a private three-week mission to the International Space Station. His space flight, for which Turkey paid roughly $55 million, was the third such journey organized by Houston-based Axiom Space with NASA and SpaceX. A new page has been opened in space science and technologies for Turkey.”Turkey established its own space agency in 2018, and said it will land on the moon by 2026. They enjoyed a few extra days at the space station, waiting for the weather to improve in the splashdown zone.

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Persons: — Turkey’s, Gezeravci, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Erdogan, “, Mehmet Fatih Kacir, Walter Villadei, Sweden’s Marcus Wandt, Michael Lopez, Alegria Organizations: Ankara’s, International Space, Turkey, NASA, SpaceX, ” Industry, Technology Locations: ISTANBUL, Turkish, Turkey, ”, Florida, Houston, ” Turkey