Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated that despite obstacles and restrictions, Turkey was expanding its presence in space, referring to the recently launched domestic satellite Turksat 6A.
Turksat 6A was launched on Monday at 7:30 p.m. local time from the US state of Florida by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. According to SpaceX, the satellite will be deployed in about 35 minutes.
Erdoğan stated on Tuesday that Turkey also sent its Turksat 5B satellite on the same rocket two and a half years ago.
We are pleased to strengthen our co-operation with Elon Musk and SpaceX in various fields.
According to him, Turkey completed more than 81 per cent of the subsystems and software work using domestic sources for Turksat 6A. He recalled that Turkey had recently conducted its first manned space flight as part of its national space programme.
The President noted that Turksat 6A would increase the satellite capacity of Turkey, including countries such as India, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
The 4.25 tonne satellite will operate at an orbital position of 42 degrees East and will have an orbital lifetime of 15 years. It will cover Turkey, Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia and will serve 4.5 billion people with television, radio, and emergency communications.
Testing of the spacecraft officially ended in 2024 and its mass performance was measured in April before it was delivered to SpaceX’s facility at Cape Canaveral in the US state of Florida on 4 June.
