The 77th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), organized by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), is being held at the Antalya NEST Congress Center under the coordination of the Ministry of Industry and Technology, with the Turkish Space Agency (TUA) and SAHA Istanbul as co-hosts.
In his remarks, Akyol said ASELSAN is the main sponsor of the event.
Akyol noted that space used to be seen as a sign of scientific achievement and the outcome of competition among countries in the scientific field, but now services provided from space in economic, military and public-service terms have almost become a symbol of Türkiye's independence in international literature.
He said ASELSAN has invested in this field for many years and added: "Here we are exhibiting some of the systems that have already been sent into space, as well as new products we have recently started developing. Our GOKBAGI Project is here. The satellite, together with its own design, has been presented on the international stage for the first time. GOKBAGI is a communications satellite constellation to be used in LEO. We design it starting from the chip. The design of the chips inside also belongs to ASELSAN. We will complete the design of the whole satellite and begin launching the first satellites in the next few years. We are now in a world where military communications, public communications, civil services and all other civilian services are carried out on the ground. With LEO, we will now provide our country with a much more effective, efficient and faster system in orbit. This is an important project. Astralink is the name we use internationally, while in Türkiye it continues as the GOKBAGI Project."
Akyol said the system is dual-use and could support many activities.
He also pointed out that when observing Earth from space with cameras, clouds can limit visibility, but with the Gokturk-3 SAR satellite they have now provided a capability—similar to what exists in UAVs—to image through cloud cover, and they presented the payload for the first time at IAC 2026.
Stating that space affects many fields, Akyol said: "Today we are talking about the development of artificial intelligence in space. We are going through an era in which all these surveillance, communication and navigation systems are carried out in space, processed there, and only the result is sent down. The GOKBAGI Project is a project that will carry Türkiye's story of technological independence into space. We are proud to show this to the whole world here. Developing technology and presenting these new technologies to the world also motivates our youth. We came here from TEKNOFEST. There, thousands of our young people once again competed in model satellite contests, and we held a satellite ground station competition. The fact that the very things they compete on there are being realized here is already a value for Türkiye. At TEKNOFEST Southeast, there were competitions for the systems you see here. Now we are proud to be a country that builds, launches and uses them."
Akyol underlined that, as the main sponsor of IAC 2026, the world's biggest space congress, ASELSAN is proud to showcase products that only a few countries in the world can produce, adding: "We are working day and night with our teams to do even better."
