Turkish Science, Industry and Technology Minister Nihat Ergün told members of the press on Tuesday that the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (Tubitak) started receiving clear images from Turkey’s first domestically made high-resolution observation satellite, Gokturk-2.
Ergün said the first images were from Turkey’s Antalya province and New Zealand’s Auckland region.
He said the satellite was passing over Turkey four times a day and during those passages, images could be obtained from every part of the country. The images would be used mostly by Turkish Air Force Command, Ergün added.
Göktürk-2 is Turkey’s first national high-resolution optical observation satellite and was produced by Tubitak and the Turkish Aerospace Industry Corp. (Tusas). According to a written statement from Tubitak, the satellite will operate from approximately 686 kilometers above the Earth.
After Göktürk-2 was launched into space from China in December 2012, a Tubitak official stated that Turkey will complete its own satellite launching station in the next 10 years.
Turkey is among 25 satellite manufacturing countries and Tubitak is working cooperatively with several other government institutions to construct the domestic satellite launching station.
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