The Dragon capsule docks with the International Space Station

The “Dragon” capsule carrying the “Axiom Mission 3” team, which includes Turkish astronaut Alper Gezer Oci, docked with the International Space Station.

The capsule arrived at the International Space Station on Saturday at approximately 05:42 US time (13:42 Turkish time) after a journey that took about 36 hours.

The moments of the successful docking were broadcast on the Axiom Space website.

The astronauts arriving at the International Space Station will be received by the astronauts of the Expedition 70 mission, who began their mission on September 27, 2023.​​​​​​​

On Friday night, SpaceX’s Axiom Mission 3 mission was launched to the International Space Station and includes 4 astronauts from Turkey, Sweden, Italy, and Spain.

The launch took place at 16:49 US time (00:49 Turkish time) from launch pad No. 39A from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

And via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, Turkish astronaut Albert Gezer Oci’s journey into space began.

The mission crew consists of 4 members: the Turkish Albert Gezer Oji, and the Spanish former NASA astronaut Lopez Alegría.

In addition to the Italian Walter Villadi, and the Swedish European Space Agency project astronaut Markus Wandt.

Turkish astronaut Gezer Oci will conduct 13 different scientific experiments on the International Space Station, where he will remain for 14 days.

The experiments will be diverse in areas such as microgravity, human health in space, and research on mixtures of solids and liquids in a zero-gravity environment.

Other astronauts will also perform scientific work in many different fields, and it is planned that the team will return to Earth in the same vehicle after completing its missions.