Home >> News: December 5th, 2016 >> Story
Satnews Daily
December 5th, 2016

Turkey's Göktürk-1 Satellite Ready For December 5th Launch


Heading out to a 700 km Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO) on December 5th will be Turkey's Göktürk-1 satellite for the nation's armed forces to supply them with ISR imagery.

The assembly and integration activities for the satellite, designed to deliver satellite ISR to the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) , are being carried out by the project's main contractor Telespazio (Italy) along with Thales Alenia Space (France) in their facilities located in Cannes, France. The satellite was subjected to environmental tests at Turkey's first Space Systems Integration and Testing Center (USET) located at the Turkish Aerospace Industries' (TAI) Akinci Air Base and was later sent to the Kourou Launch Center in French Guiana in preparation for orbit.


Artistic rendition of Turkey's Göktürk-1 satellite.

Göktürk-1 is expected to be released from the launch vehicle approximately 57 minutes after launch and will then open its solar panels at 59 minutes post-launch. The first signal from the satellite will hopefully be acquired some 68 minutes after liftoff. The satellite will then circumnavigate the Earth approximately every 90 minutes and was designed to acquire more than 60,000 images per year. At every pass over Turkey, the Göktürk-1 satellite will transfer the photographs and images taken during that rotation to the Turkish Air Force Command's Satellite Ground Station.

The satellite will also perform remote sensing tasks for public institutions and organizations in many fields including: monitoring the environment and construction, agricultural harvests, municipal applications, border control and cadastral activities—Göktürk-1 will transmit images at a higher resolution compared to other, similar models in orbit.