Turkish satellite set to send images

ISTANBUL - Doğan News Agency

PM Erdoğan (L) and Chief of General Staff Özel, attend the ceremony. DHA photo

Turkey’s first Earth observation satellite, Göktürk-2, was expected to send its first images yesterday after being launched Dec. 18 in China.

The satellite passed over the Turkish capital of Ankara five times in its first 16 hours and will circle the globe 15 times a day, according to Tamer Beler, an official from the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey’s (TÜBİTAK) Space Technologies Research Institution.

The satellite reportedly works efficiently and has not experienced any problems so far, Beler said.
Connection is being held with the satellite through land stations located in Ankara and Norway’s Trömso, Svalbard islands.

A Chinese Long March 2D, launched from Jiuquan in north-central China, has orbited the Turkish government payload.

Goktürk-2 contains a South Korean imaging system capable of 2.5m resolution aboard a Turkish-built satellite bus.

The satellite, a joint development by TÜBİTAK and Turkish Aerospace Industries, Inc, will mainly be used for environmental protection, mineral resource exploration, urban planning and disaster monitoring and management.

All computer software and the satellite computer were fully manufactured in Turkey.