Today, RASAT Satellite, designed and produced by TUBITAK Space Technologies Research Institute, has completed its seventh year in orbit. Turkey's first indigenous RASAT observation satellite is carrying out the tasks successfully in space since 17 August 2011.
RASAT was taken on a total of 14,057,100 km² area image of the world during its time in the space. RASAT took images about eighteen times of Turkey and accomplished 2448 tasks successfully. Although the original design life of the RASAT Satellite was three years, it has proved that the Turkish engineers have been able to develop long lasting products in space environment by working successfully for seven years and taking 37,290 rounds in orbit around the world.
RASAT is able to take images from all over the world without any limitation and it transmits the images to Ground Station located in TUBITAK UZAY. The processed images are shared with everyone on www.gezgin.gov.tr internet adress, which is first national satellite image portal covering Turkey. The images obtained from RASAT are used in land surveying, disaster monitoring, smart agriculture, environment, and urban planning.
With the experience, success and self-confidence gained from RASAT Satellite, Gokturk-2 Satellite was built by the Turkish engineers under the leadership of TUBITAK UZAY. Based on the experience gained from RASAT and Gokturk-2 Satellites, TUBİTAK UZAY is leading IMECE (a high-resolution observation satellite) and TURKSAT6A (Turkey's first communications satellite) satellite projects, both satellites are planned to be launced in space in 2021.
With RASAT Satellite, Turkey has joined into small number of countries capable of design and produce an observation satellite.
Happy seventh anniversary RASAT.