Serbian flag in Space for the first time, carried by Turkish businessman married to a Serbian woman

Jeff Bezos’s company Blue Origin today launched a spacecraft from the Van Horn base in Texas carrying Turkish businessman Gokhan Erdem, whose wife is Serbian. Because of this, Erdem brought both the Turkish and Serbian flags into space, marking the first time the Serbian flag has ever been taken into space, RTV reported.

In addition to the flags of Turkey and Serbia, Erdem also took with him a silhouette of the Bosphorus, symbolizing his connection to Istanbul, as published on the Blue Origin website.

The New Shepard NS-34 flight had eight passengers, none of whom were astronauts, Tanjug reported.

The entire flight lasted about 11 minutes, including ascent, capsule separation, freefall, and parachute landing.

Following the successful missions of Turkish astronauts Alper Gezeravcı and Tuva Cihangir Atasever through the National Space Program, Gokhan Erdem became the third space traveler from Turkey.

Erdem, a member of the Board of Directors of Erdem Holding, became the first Turkish businessman in space and the first Turkish citizen to fly with Blue Origin.

This was the fourteenth human-crewed flight of the New Shepard system. The capsule flight is fully autonomous and uncrewed.

Serbia’s Ambassador to the United States, Dragan Sutanovac, previously received businessman Erdem and his wife Jelena at the Serbian Embassy in Washington.

Jelena Erdem is a biotechnologist, born in Belgrade, where she graduated from the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy. After beginning her career in Serbia, she moved to Istanbul, where she now lives with her husband.