Turkey made its first step to go into space with locally-made rocket: Erdoğan

ANKARA

Turkey has taken its first step to fly into space by producing its rocket using only national resources, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, stressing the Turkish engineers will soon be able to test liquid-fuel rockets.

“Our first space probe rocket produced by using a national technology has reached 130 kilometers altitude, passing 100 kilometers line and therefore made the first step to space. We are now at the ‘aerospace league’ thanks to our national technology and local equipment,” Erdoğan said at the inauguration of Roketsan’s Research Center of the Space Systems, Satellite Launching and Advanced Technologies on Aug. 30 in Ankara.

Turkey tested its first rocket by using solid fuel, while tests for the hybrid fuel rockets are continuing, the president said.

Once Turkey’s first indigenous satellite will be launched and set on an orbit, it will facilitate the communication between different military units by providing real-time information and accurate coordination, Erdoğan said, adding this will give an enormous capacity to the Turkish Armed Forces both in peace and at war.

“In the past 18 years, we managed to revive our defense industry, which became paralyzed [at the hands of former governments]. We have reduced our dependency rate to the foreign producers to 30 percent from 70 percent,” he said.

The Turkish defense industry has already become one of the top industries in the world, Erdoğan said, adding, “We are defending our rights in full determination from Syria to Iraq, from Libya to the eastern Mediterranean. But to make this success a permanent one requires raising the level.”

Turkey will not purchase any defense industry equipment that can be produced in Turkey by using the national resources, Erdoğan underlined, calling on the defense industry companies and the Presidency of Defense Industries to pay utmost attention to it and to remain in coordination.