ZHUKOVSKY. Aug 30 (Interfax) - Turkey will consider Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin's offer to send a Turkish astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS) for the 100-year anniversary of the Turkish Republic, and will make a decision about that, Glavkosmos general director Dmitry Loskutov told Interfax.
"I believe that the Turkish side still needs to discuss this offer and make its decision. They will have to confirm their interest and decide on possible dates," Loskutov said.
Russia and Turkey have been discussing cooperation in space exploration not only at the highest level, but also at the expert level, where they have already discussed the possibility of training a Turkish astronaut, he said.
"Naturally, such issues were also discussed at the working level, but no concrete documents were considered," he said.
Russia has an extensive record of training foreign astronauts, he said. "Given our existing record of training the United Arab Emirates' first astronaut, who is due to fly into space on September 25, and also the fact that a similar process is now starting with India, why not Turkey display its interest in this project, especially bearing in mind the republic's upcoming anniversary?" Loskutov said.
During a recent visit to the MAKS international airshow by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Rogozin came up with an initiative to arrange a Turkish astronaut's flight to the ISS.
Rogozin told reporters the same day that Russia and Turkey opened talks on training a Turkish astronaut for a possible flight to the ISS.
Glavkosmos is a subsidiary of Roscosmos and is the operator of the State Space Corporation's foreign economic activity.