MOSCOW

The journey of Türkiye's first astronaut Alper Gezeravci into space was a "significant" development, according to a Russian cosmonaut.

"This event is a great success for Turkish scientists. It demonstrates the progress of science, technology, humanity, and it is a great prestige for the Turkish state because the number of countries capable of sending cosmonauts into space is small,” Salizhan Sharipov, an Uzbek Turk with the title of hero of Russia and Kyrgyzstan, told Anadolu.

“Gezeravci's name will go down in history. This is a major development. Türkiye's research in space will further advance science," Sharipov said.

"I hope Türkiye will have more astronauts. I also wish Gezeravci good health and success. He has proven himself. I hope he will gather a team of astronauts in the future and pass on his experiences to the younger ones," he added.

Sharipov expressed readiness for future collaboration with astronauts from Türkiye.

Sharipov said he joined the cosmonaut team in 1990 and after getting the necessary training, he made his first flight in 1998, spending about 10 days in space.

He made his second flight into space in 2004, staying there for 193 days.

Sharipov said he ventured outside the spacecraft twice and did nearly 100 experiments in various scientific fields.

Sharipov continues his activities at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, a Russian training facility responsible for training cosmonauts for their space missions in the Star City of Moscow Oblast.

A space capsule carrying Turkish, Spanish, Italian, and Swedish astronauts undocked from the International Space Station on Wednesday, freeing the ship to make its way back to Earth.

The return process is expected to take around 47 hours, concluding on Friday morning, Eastern Time in the US.

On Jan. 19, the mission was launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The Ax-3 space mission crew docked at the International Space Station the next day, Jan. 20.

During their over two-week stay on the station, Turkish Air Force Gezeravci and his crewmates carried out over 30 scientific experiments, about half of them by Gezeravci himself.

The crew’s scheduled return has been postponed several times due to bad weather.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz in Ankara