Türkiye's 'homegrown satellites' getting ready to take up duty

Türkiye's tech giant, Turkish Aerospace Inc (TAI), will carry out new missions in the country and abroad with various satellites besides its responsibilities in the national communications satellite Turksat 6A.

TAI Space Systems Deputy General Manager Selman Nas told Anadolu that the company developed an operational satellite for another customer by using the competencies gained in making communications satellite Turksat 6A.

Therefore, TAI has created the Small Size GEO Satellite telecommunication satellite platform, which can accommodate a wide range of commercial payloads and missions families for this purpose, he said.

"The most important feature of this satellite is that it is electric and its lifespan is the same as other chemical propulsion systems. So that, the mass of the satellite is low," Nas underlined.

Thanks to its low mass, it has a low launch cost and can be produced and put into service very quickly, Nas noted.

TAI started to make such a satellite for Argentina's operator ARIAT, he said, explaining:

"They wanted a satellite suitable for high-capacity data and communication transfer. Technically, it is called Ka band."

Nas said the critical design of Small Size GEO would have been completed by the end of this year and its development project by the end of next year.

Touching on Türkiye's high-resolution earth observation satellite Gokturk-1, Nas said TAI is working on the Gokturk Renewal satellite as Gokturk-1 will complete its 7-year lifespan soon.

"The satellite will be launched into orbit in 2027. There is no change/delay in this schedule for now," Nas said.

Nas also said that the company included conducting commercial activities with small and cost-effective observation satellites on their agenda and that they developed a microsatellite project.

"Again, it is an observation satellite. Its resolution is not for military operations. It is a project to evaluate the images taken for some agriculture, forestry and urbanism applications and transmit them to the end user," he explained.