Turkey's high-resolution domestic reconnaissance satellite GÖKTÜRK-2 was launched into space from the Jiuquan Launch Base in China. The first signal was received from the satellite, which successfully settled into orbit.

A ceremony was held at TÜBİTAK UZAY with the participation of Cemil Çiçek, Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister; General Necdet Özel, Chief of General Staff; Bekir Bozdağ, Deputy Prime Minister; Nihat Ergün, Minister of Science, Industry and Technology; Binali Yıldırım, Minister of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications; Ömer Dinçer, Minister of National Education; İsmet Yılmaz, Minister of National Defense; Hayati Yazıcı, Minister of Customs and Trade; and Prof. Dr. Yücel Altunbaşak, President of TÜBİTAK.

Produced by the TÜBİTAK Space Technologies Research Institute (UZAY) and TAI, GÖKTÜRK-2, which has a resolution of 2.5 meters, started its space journey from the Jiuquan Space Launch Center in the Gansu Province of the People's Republic of China at 18:13 Turkey time. At 18:25, 12 minutes after the launch, Göktürk-2 settled into its orbit at an altitude of 686 kilometers. After settling into orbit, the first signal from the satellite was successfully received at 19:39.

The launch moment of GÖKTÜRK-2 was also followed from Ankara via live broadcast. During the ceremony at TÜBİTAK UZAY on the METU campus, a live connection was made with TÜBİTAK UZAY teams working at the launch base in China and ground stations in Ankara and Norway. Turkish officials in China stated that the morale before the launch was at a high level in the live connection made minutes before the launch.

To watch a video of the launch click here.