The fifth and final launch of Turkey's first local and national communications satellite, TÜRKSAT 6A, into its orbit was successfully carried out.
Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır, in his speech at the Türksat 6A 5th Ignition Program at TÜBİTAK Space, said that the Türksat 6A project, one of the most important projects of the National Space Program on the path of Turkey's National Technology Move, was a success. He said the engineers and researchers here completed it successfully with their brains and sweat.
Thanking all the researchers, engineers and all the employees of Türksat, TÜBİTAK, TUSAŞ, ASELSAN and C-Tech who have contributed to this project for years, Kacır said that Turkey's space program is a 40-year-old dream, since 1985. He reminded that Ankara Electronics Research and Development Institute was established on the campus of Middle East Technical University (METU) with a protocol signed between TÜBİTAK and METU.
Stating that plans were indeed made for Turkey to develop its own satellites during these years, Kacır said, “But unfortunately, the 80s and 90s were a period when political and economic instability occurred from time to time in Turkey, which ultimately meant that Turkey did not have the opportunity to do world-class work in the space race.” After the 2000s, under the leadership of our President, Turkey implemented many successful projects such as BİLSAT, RASAT and GÖKTÜRK to become a country that can develop, produce and benefit from its own satellites, “And with our high-resolution imaging satellite İMECE, which we sent into space last year, we gained tremendous domestic capability, especially in imaging satellites,” he said.
“He brought us an important skill”
Kacır stated that the development of communication satellites is a more ambitious and advanced goal compared to imaging satellites.
Emphasizing that Turkey, which previously procured communication satellites from abroad, produced its own communication satellite with Türksat 6A for the first time with the developments and designs of its own teams and finally sent it into space, Kacır continued:
“Türksat 6A is the most valuable technology platform and product that Turkey has ever produced. With Türksat 6A, Turkey is now one of the 11 countries that can produce its own communication satellite. During the development process of Türksat 6A, we produced 84 satellites and successfully completed 396 environmental and functional tests on site at the USET center on the TAI campus. With the inclusion of Türksat 6A, we have now achieved the coverage of Türksat communication satellites. With Türksat 6A, we had the opportunity to reach the regions where approximately 5 billion people live in the world. What we experienced with Türksat 6A was the ability to carry out orbital transfers with the skills of our own teams. Because this competence has given us an important capability that we will use in the new satellite and space systems and new projects that Turkey will develop in the future years.”
Türksat 6A is in its last mission orbit
Reminding that they launched Türksat 6A into space on July 9, Kacır said, “In the 67th minute of the launch, our teams received the first signal from the satellite. About an hour after the first signal, our teams sent the first command to the satellite. With the command of our teams, this was later considered as one of the important stages.” “We inaugurated the solar panels we installed,” he said.
Reminding that through four different launches on July 10, 12, 14 and 16, they gradually transferred the satellite from the elliptical orbit between 300,000 and 70,000 kilometers, on which it moved after leaving the rocket, to the circular orbit of 35,000 786 kilometers, which is the final mission orbit, Kacır announced the following information:
“We witnessed the final transfer operation together. After the ignition lasted 5 minutes and 22 seconds, Türksat 6A has now settled into a circular orbit at an altitude of 35,786 kilometers, which represents its final mission orbit. Now in the coming months, Türksat 6A will complete its tests in an orbit of about 50 degrees and then complete its final mission. “It will be transferred to the mission orbit of 42 degrees and delivered to Türksat to be operated by our teams for at least 15 years.”
Minister Kacır stated that thanks to the teams with the Moon mission, which is one of the most important phases of the National Space Program, they will take these capabilities to a much higher level with new satellite projects in the coming years.
Kacır said that under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, they will continue to implement many projects aimed at making Turkey's name known in space and making Turkey one of the leading countries in space technology, adding:
“I would like to thank our esteemed President, our esteemed Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu for their strongest patronage for our Türksat 6A project and all national technology movement programs and projects, and TÜBİTAK for the ownership and support they have shown to Türksat so far. I would like to thank the Space, TAI, ASELSAN and CTech teams and of course our Türksat teams, who will ultimately use the satellite, for their meticulous work throughout the process for the Turkish nation.
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