Turkey aims for moon by 2023 as UAE reaches Mars

Turkey's president announced he wants to send a spacecraft to the moon by Turkey's centennial the same day regional rival the United Arab Emirates reached Mars.
A picture taken on January 31, 2018 shows the moon during a lunar eclipse, referred to as the "super blue blood moon" up in the sky above the Bosphorus straits in Istanbul. - Skywatchers were hoping for a rare lunar eclipse that combines three unusual events -- a blue moon, a super moon and a total eclipse -- which was to make for a large crimson moon viewable in many corners of the globe. (Photo by YASIN AKGUL / AFP) (Photo credit should read YASIN AKGUL/AFP via Getty Images)
A picture taken on Jan. 31, 2018, shows the moon during a lunar eclipse above the Bosporus Strait in Istanbul. - YASIN AKGUL/AFP via Getty Images
Al Monitor: The Pulse of the Middle East
Al-Monitor Staff

Turkey unveiled its space program and plans to go to the moon on Tuesday, the day a United Arab Emirates space probe reached Mars’ orbit.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised a lunar voyage within two years, saying, “We will go to the moon in 2023.”

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