TÜRKSAT 6A, the first indigenously-developed national telecommunication satellite of Türkiye, which was developed under the leadership of TÜBİTAK UZAY was launched into space on July 9th at 02.30 Türkiye Time (TRT). This important event was followed by our colleagues and their families at TÜBİTAK Space Technologies Research Institute, TÜRKSAT Company facilities and the Space Center in the USA.
While Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz, Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır, TÜBİTAK UZAY Institute Director Mehmet Nefes and Institute Deputy Director Bülent Avenoğlu attended the Launch Ceremony held at TÜRKSAT's Gölbaşı campus as speakers, a group of our colleagues from the Institute watched the ceremony on site.
In addition, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu, President of Defense Industry Agency Haluk Görgün, TÜBİTAK President Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal and project team members from TÜBİTAK UZAY were also present at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, USA, where TÜRKSAT 6A was launched.
Experienced researchers from each subsystem were sent to SpaceX facilities to ensure that the satellite was not damaged during transportation to the launch site and to verify that the satellite was in its final hardware and software configuration. While some of this team returned to Türkiye to participate in the satellite commissioning operations after the launch, the rest stayed on site to perform health tests of the satellite its integration to the rocket, to ensure the readiness of the satellite until the moment of launch.
At the same time, engineers from TÜBİTAK UZAY, TUSAŞ, ASELSAN, Ctech and TÜRKSAT were at the ground station established within TÜBİTAK UZAY collaborating on commissioning activities of TÜRKSAT 6A following the launch, in order to ensure the monitoring and control of this important mission.
The moment of launch was followed with great excitement by TÜBİTAK UZAY employees and their families. Those who watched the live broadcast in the institute cafeteria were proud to witness this historical moment. This launch, which is an important step in space technologies history of Türkiye, became even more meaningful with the participation of families.
TÜRKSAT 6A Message from Erdoğan
While sending a video message to the launch ceremony held at TÜRKSAT Gölbaşı campus, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated that the launch was a new occasion of pride for Türkiye and the nation. In the message published after the satellite was successfully launched into space, Erdoğan stated that the domestic communication satellite TÜRKSAT 6A had just been launched into space, and emphasized that more than 81 percent of the subsystems, satellite ground station and software in the TÜRKSAT 6A project, which is of great importance for the future of Türkiye, were produced indigenously.
Speaking before the launch, Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz stressed that satellite technologies have become one of the areas of strategic importance.
“We are moving our country forward step by step in the field of space”
Speaking at the ceremony, Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır stated that they are taking Türkiye forward step by step in terms of human resources, design and engineering capabilities and said, "With our investments in satellite technologies, where our competencies in the field of space are collected on a large scale, our country has reached a level where it can develop, produce and test its own satellites." With our sub-meter resolution national observation satellite İMECE, which we launched last year, we can now receive images from all over the world without any restrictions. We used it in the production of communication satellites, which incorporate more sophisticated technologies compared to the imaging satellites we supply. During the project process, in which we carried out all stages locally, a total of 84 pieces of equipment of 23 different types, such as flight computers, power distribution and regulation units, star tracks, reaction wheels and electric propulsion systems of our satellite, were produced locally. We have achieved an indigenous production ratio of over 80 percent. We confirmed the suitability of our satellite for space conditions and launch conditions with 396 environmental and functional tests carried out after system integration. We became one of the 11 countries that could produce their own communication satellite with all these capabilities. Türkiye is in the top 11 A team in satellite technologies. "By transporting our satellite to the launch site on June 4th, our friends completed the pre-launch control tests, fuel filling activities and integration studies with the launch vehicle," he said.
"Our work in space will continue to grow stronger on the path to a fully independent Türkiye.”
TÜBİTAK President Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal, together with Minister of Transport Abdülkadir Uraloğlu and TÜBİTAK UZAY team, was at the launch center of Space.
Mandal, who went to the closest location to the pre-launch area and made a connection to the ground station at TÜBİTAK UZAY, thanked the employees for TÜRKSAT 6A for their efforts, emphasizing the difficulty of the task. “God bless your efforts and your hearts my dear colleagues. I congratulate our team. May God not embarrass us,” he said.
TÜBİTAK UZAY Institute Director Mehmet Nefes: "Türkiye Now Has the Power to Produce Its Own Telecommunication Satellites"
Speaking at the ceremony at TÜRKSAT Campus, TÜBİTAK UZAY Institute Director Mehmet Nefes emphasized that Türkiye has proven, through TÜRKSAT 6A, its ability to produce its own telecommunication satellites. Nefes, emphasizing that TÜRKSAT 6A has serious strategic and psychological gains as well as technical and economic gains, said: "I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who worked hard, put in sweat, put their mind and heart into this project, gave direct or indirect support, or at least prayed. I would like to thank everyone both personally and as the Director of TÜBİTAK UZAY”. “This project has many stakeholders who are proud and excited right now. It is a great honor for us to carry our flag approximately 36000 km away from here and to be instrumental in transforming our country into a national power by gaining the ability to produce its own telecommunication satellites after its ability to produce its own earth observation satellites." he said.
Emphasizing that the TÜRKSAT 5B satellite was sent into space from the same rocket and location on December 19, 2021, Nefes stated how valuable and meaningful it is, especially for those in the sector, that the last announcement, which was made in French at that time, will be made in Turkish today. Saying that TÜRKSAT 6A has a special place for him, Nefes stated that he was proud to be a part of this project. He expressed his hope that work will continue for the production of a new generation of satellites.
A great success under the leadership of TÜBİTAK UZAY: The First Indigenously-developed National Telecommunication Satellite TÜRKSAT 6A
The project, in which the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure and TÜRKSAT A.Ş. took part as customer institutions, TÜBİTAK UZAY took part as the project management institution, and ASELSAN, TUSAŞ and C2TECH companies took part as the project executing institutions. With the equipment developed by Turkish engineers in the project management and executing institutions, the TÜRKSAT 6A satellite achieved a localization rate of over 80 percent.
The project includes the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure and TÜBİTAK as funding institutions; It was carried out in accordance with the legislation of TÜBİTAK KAMAG 1007 Public Institutions Research and Development Projects Support Program.
TÜRKSAT 6A project started on December 15, 2014 with the aim of indigenously developing a national telecommunication satellite for the first time in Türkiye. In the project, TÜBİTAK UZAY; was responsible for the development of power, satellite management, orbit and orientation control, and electric propulsion subsystems in addition to the project management and systems engineering responsibilities, TUSAŞ was responsible for the development of structural, thermal, cabling and chemical propulsion subsystems, ASELSAN was responsible for the development of the payload and finally CTECH was responsible for the development of the telecommand/telemetry and distance measurement subsystem.
Many equipments used on the satellite were developed indigenously within the scope of the project
In the scope of the project, there were 9 platform subsystems, 1 payload subsystem and 1 government-provided payload subsystem. For the Flight Model alone, 24 different types and a total of 84 indigenously-developed critical equipment, including flight computers, power regulation units, power distribution units, reaction wheels, sun sensors, star trackers, and electric propulsion motors, were produced. Additionally, 396 different environmental and functional tests were conducted for these equipment pieces, and many components such as structural units, RF filters, and adapters were designed and manufactured. In TÜBİTAK UZAY alone, 318 electronic cards were produced, 111 of which were of different types. The TÜRKSAT 6A project also contributed greatly to the trained personnel and experience in the space sector in Türkiye. During the busiest time of the project, the total number of personnel working on the project in the collaborating institutions exceeded 400.
Thanks to large-scale space projects such as TÜRKSAT 6A, the number of employees in the space sector has increased, the personnel who will take part in future space projects of Türkiye have gained experience, and the development infrastructure and knowledge have expanded.
TÜRKSAT 6A will meet the telecommunication demand of Türkiye for 15 years
TÜRKSAT 6A, which will meet a significant part of telecommunication needs of Türkiye for 15 years, will be located at the longitude of 42 degrees east and at an altitude of 35.786 kilometers. With TÜRKSAT 6A that can produce up to 9.2 kilowatts of power and weighs 4.250 kilograms, countries such as India, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia that are not served by existing communication satellites, will be within coverage of TÜRKSAT.
With the entry into service of TÜRKSAT 6A, the population reached by the satellites will increase from 3.5 billion to 5 billion, while the satellite service export volume of TÜRKSAT to the region is aimed to increase significantly.
One of the goals following the TÜRKSAT 6A experience is for Türkiye that is now among the few countries that can produce communication satellites, to become a satellite exporter.
The successful launch of TÜRKSAT 6A once again demonstrated the competence and determination of Türkiye in the field of science and technology. This project, which was implemented as the joint work of organizations such as TÜBİTAK UZAY, TUSAŞ, ASELSAN, Ctech and TÜRKSAT, forms an important basis for the future space endeavors of Türkiye.
