Tuva Cihangir Atasever's space journey has begun

Virgin Galactic's X social media account shared information regarding preparations for the "Galactic 07" mission. The post stated, "A great day for spaceflight.

We are preparing to take four more people to space. Weather conditions over the Spaceport are favorable."

TAKEN OFF

The aircraft carrying the "VSS Unity" suborbital vehicle, which includes Turkey's second astronaut Tuva Cihangir Atasever, has taken off from the Spaceport facility in New Mexico.

HOW THE PROCESS WILL PROCEED

The 6-person "Galactic 07" crew, which includes Turkey's second astronaut Atasever as a research astronaut, will consist of two private astronauts from the US, one from Italy, and 2 pilots.

In the flight, which is planned to last approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes, the "VSS Unity" suborbital vehicle is expected to reach an altitude of approximately 45,000 feet via the carrier aircraft, and then reach an altitude of approximately 90 kilometers by igniting its hybrid-fueled rocket motor.

Atasever is planned to conduct 7 scientific experiments in a microgravity environment during the approximately 3-minute free-fall phase.

EXPERIMENTS RANGING FROM RADIATION ANALYSIS TO INSULIN PEN TESTING

The astronaut suit worn by Atasever, who will carry out a scientific mission, has been specially revised to carry equipment for 3 experiments.

Within the scope of the brain imaging experiment named "BEACON," Atasever will wear a near-infrared spectroscopy measurement device on his head during all phases of the flight. Thus, blood distribution in the prefrontal cortex region of the brain and the dynamics of spinal fluid will be examined. In addition to this experiment, the psychological changes and transformations caused by seeing the Earth from a distant point will also be analyzed by collecting samples from Atasever.

With the IvmeRad Radiation Dosimeter experiment, information on how much radiation is exposed will be obtained. Thus, it will be possible to make predictions about how much radiation people who will go to space stations in later processes will be exposed to instantaneously.

With the Insulin Pen Test in Space, which is a joint experiment of the Turkish Space Agency (TUA) and Axiom Space, 2 different insulin pens placed in a special box will be carried to space, and the dose delivery efficiency in this environment will be tested for the first time. Thus, the first trial regarding the effectiveness of treatment methods that can be applied if individuals with diabetes go to space stations to be built in Earth's orbit in the coming years will have been carried out.

Within the scope of Vesicle Analysis in Suborbital Flight, extracellular vesicles found in biological samples collected from Atasever before and after the flight will be isolated via a specially developed microfluidic chip. In this way, the potential for developing a number of adaptation therapies that can be applied before astronauts go to space in the future will be investigated.

The MESSAGE, METABOLOM, and MIYELOID experiments, which were part of Turkey's first astronaut Alper Gezeravcı's mission, will also be implemented in the Suborbital Research Mission that Atasever will carry out.