From Earth to Space: Meet Turkish Astronaut Tuva Cihangir Atasever
The VILNIUS TECH community and everyone who loves Space is invited to attend a meeting on June 3 (Wednesday), 10.30 AM with Tuva Cihangir Atasever, the second astronaut of the Turkish Space Agency and an avionics engineer.
During the meeting, the guest will share his experience from space missions, talk about the scientific research he has carried out, and discuss the challenges of working in the space sector. The event will cover a variety of research fields, including:
- astroparticle physics,
- genetics,
- brain hemodynamics,
- biomedical devices,
- cellular and molecular biology.
This is a unique opportunity to hear international insights from a professional working in the space sector, learn more about cutting-edge scientific research, and ask questions about the future of astronautics and space technologies.
Event information:
📅 June 3 (Wednesday)
🕥 10:30 a.m.
📍 6th Floor Lobby, Central Building, Saulėtekio Ave. 11, Vilnius
⏱ Duration: 1 hour
Tuva Cihangir Atasever Bio
Born in August 1992 in Ankara, Türkiye, Tuva Atasever attended the Bilkent University, where he received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. After completing his undergraduate studies in 2014, Atasever moved to the United States and received a Master’s degree in photonics from the University of California, Irvine. In addition, in 2018 Atasever completed the Space Studies Program (SSP) organized by Delft University of Technology, European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESA ESTEC), and International Space University (ISU).
After receiving his master’s degree in 2016, Atasever co-founded and acted as the CEO of Blue Dot VR where he worked on creating compelling experiences in virtual reality to induce pro-social, pro-environmental, and empathetic behaviors in users. In 2017, Atasever co-founded another startup called HyperSight, Inc., which focused on augmented reality.
After working on those ventures and gaining life-changing experiences, Atasever started working for ROKETSAN, Inc as an avionics systems engineer responsible from the avionic subsystems in the Micro Satellite Launch Vehicle (MSLV) and Space Sounding Rocket (SSR) development projects. As the payload integration manager for SSR, Atasever’s latest responsibility at ROKETSAN included selecting scientific and commercial payloads that were going to be launched on the SSR, creating technical requirements for those payloads, and successfully integrating them on the launch vehicle following the design verification process.
In May of 2022, Atasever enthusiastically applied for the first-ever astronaut selection campaign of the Turkish Space Agency (TUA). After passing all the phases successfully, he was selected as one of the first two astronauts of Türkiye.
Atasever enjoys swimming, outdoor running, camping, and backpacking, previously journeying across several national parks in Northern and Southern California and along the Mediterranean coast.
Atasever served as the backup mission specialist for Axiom Mission 3, the first all-European commercial astronaut mission to the International Space Station. In June 2024, he flew to space on Galactic 07 mission as a research astronaut and carried out seven different scientific investigations as part of the mission.
