ORMARA LAUNCH FACILITY - After a minor scandal forced the selection of a new Ğarçığar (cosmonaut) to replace Talğat Sopu Bek-ulı, and then several last-minute technical issues delayed the planned early January launch still further, SpaceOrg's first manned space flight took off this morning.
The Qavoşğar ("Explorer") space capsule, atop a Mıtra rocket with a full complement of six strap-on boosters, lifted off at 09:47 local time, carrying the Qazaqstani Ğarçığar Sergei Jandosov into low Earth orbit.  The lift-off proceeded without a noticeable hitch, and orbit was achieved, making the half-Russian half-Qazaq Sergey Ağa the first SpaceOrg cosmonaut to orbit the Earth.
Cheers greeted the announcement that orbit had been achieved here at Mission Control, though the difficulties of successful re-entry still remained.
After what Mission Control here in Ormara deemed a successful mission, the Qavoşğar capsule re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and splashed down in the Indian Ocean.  A vessel of the Moghul Royal Navy recovered the capsule  with Captain Jandosov on board, and is expected to return him to Ormara later this week.
Captain Jandosov will fly from Ormara to the capitals of the four members of the SpaceOrg alliance for celebratory parades and honours.  Beginning in Herat, then progressing through Tehran and Buxara and finishing in his home town, the Qazaq capital Qarağanda.
 
The Central Asian space agency known to the English-speaking world as SpaceOrg announced its intention to put its first man in space on January 7th.  The collaborative venture between Turkestan,  Persia, the Moghul National Realm and the Russian Republic of Qazaqstan is possibly the newest space agency, and launched its first satellite at the beginning of the year.
The planned man-in-space mission announcement, including a press conference introducing the "first choice" Ğarçığar (cosmonaut) Talğat Sopu Bek-ulı, became mired in controversy by a joke attempted by Talğat Ğarçığar.
Talğat Ğarçığar tried to joke that the Mıtra space rocket would lift with it the soul of the late Pope in the Qavoşğar ("Explorer") capsule, "carrying him to Heaven", as he put it.  It did not go down as well as he intended.
Talğat Sopu Bek-ulı is well-known in the Turkestani pilot community as a joker, but his personal skill and the prestige of his family made him seem like a natural choice for the SpaceOrg's first cosmonaut.  The tastelessness of this particular joke may have cost him his historic space flight.