At 02.30, in Turkish time, a Turkish communication satellite of Turksat 6a was launched from the US Air Force station at Cape Kanveral in Florida.
In the launch ceremony of the TURKSAT 6A satellite, held at the Cape Kanveral cosmodrome in Florida, the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uralogl, the head of the defense industry Hergun, General Director of Turksat Hasan Ertok, the head of the Council for Scientific and Technical Studies of the Turkey (Tübi̇tak) Professor Hassan Mandala, CEO of Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) Mehmet Demiroglu, Aselsan General Akhmet Akhol, CTECH Director General Giunem Fyrat and other officials.
The first domestic satellite developed by Turkish engineers Türksat 6A was sent into space from the starting complex 40 Falcon 9 missile Space X in 02.30 in Turkish time.
The launch operation, which was postponed several times due to adverse weather conditions, ended safely.
– orbit 42 degrees of eastern longitude
about half an hour after the launch of Turksat 6A will separate from the rocket. It is expected that the first signal will be accepted about 70 minutes after separating the satellite from the rocket.
After the successful launch of Türksat 6a into space, the entire orbit management and subsystems will be carried out through stations, and the satellite will begin its space journey to its orbit at 42 degrees of eastern longitude.
After entering orbit, the phase of orbital tests will begin. Türksat 6A will be commissioned by Türksat after at least one month of testing.
– the population covered by Turkish satellites will exceed 5 billion people
Türksat 6A will be at a distance of 35 thousand 786 kilometers from the ground and will provide services using 20 transmitters of the Ku-band. Türksat 6A with a capacity of 8.4 kilowatts and weighing 4,229 kilograms will serve the territories of India, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.
With the launch of this satellite, Türkiye will cover with its communication satellites more than 65 percent of the population of the planet. The population covered by Turkish satellites will increase from 3.5 billion to more than 5 billion people.
Türksat 6A satellite is made by Turkish engineers in the center of integration and testing of space systems (USET) TAI in Ankara. The share of the local component is more than 80 percent. The customers of the Türksat 6A project are the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure and Türksat, the project manager is Tübi̇tak Uzay, and the project executors are Aselsan, TAI and CTECH.