Göktürk-1 (also Göktürk-1A) is a high resolution

Earth observation satellite An Earth observation satellite or Earth remote sensing satellite is a satellite used or designed for Earth observation (EO) from orbit, including spy satellites and similar ones intended for non-military uses such as environmental monitoring, me ...

(greater than 50 cm) designed and developed for the Turkish Ministry of National Defence by the

Italia Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

n space service company

Telespazio Telespazio Spa is a European spaceflight services company founded in 1961. It is a joint venture owned by Leonardo (67%) and Thales Group (33%) headquartered in Rome. Telespazio provides services that include the design and development of space ...

with technological input from

Turkish Aerospace Industries Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. (, TAI or TUSAŞ) is a state-owned Arms industry, arms company in Turkey. History On 16 August 1925 the Turkish Aircraft and Engine Limited Company ''()'' factory was founded in Kayseri, Turkey. The company ...

(TUSAŞ) and ASELSAN of Turkey. The agreement to build Göktürk-1 was signed on July 13, 2009 between the Ministry of National Defence and Telespazio, a

Finmeccanica Leonardo S.p.A., formerly Leonardo-Finmeccanica and originally Finmeccanica, is an Italian multinational company specialising in aerospace, defence and security. Headquartered in Rome, the company has 180 sites worldwide. It is the 12th largest ...

Thales Group Thales S.A., Trade name, trading as Thales Group (), is a French multinational corporation, multinational aerospace and defence industry, defence corporation specializing in electronics. It designs, develops and manufactures a wide variety of aer ...

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

company, taking effect on July 19, 2009.

Thales Alenia Space Thales Alenia Space () is a joint venture between the French technology corporation Thales Group (67%) and Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo (company), Leonardo (33%). The company is headquartered in Cannes, France. It provides space-based ...

is in charge of supplying the

satellite bus A satellite bus (or spacecraft bus) is the main body and structural component of a satellite or spacecraft, in which the payload and all scientific instruments are held. Bus-derived satellites are less customized than specially-produced satelli ...

. Within the framework of the project, a facility for assembly, integration and testing of spacecraft (UMET) up to mass will be established in Turkey, which is considered as a critical infrastructure. The project is valued at more than

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

250m. The satellite with resolution is intended for use of

reconnaissance In military operations, military reconnaissance () or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, the terrain, and civil activities in the area of operations. In military jargon, reconnai ...

over any location on Earth without geographical restriction. Additionally, it will carry out various civil applications on mapping and planning, landcover survey,

geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

, ecosystem monitoring,

disaster management Emergency management (also Disaster management) is a science and a system charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters. Emergency management, despite its name, does not actua ...

, environmental control, coastal zone management, and water resources. On March 18, 2025, a satellite photo of the

Çanakkale Martyrs' Memorial The Çanakkale Martyrs' Memorial () is a war memorial commemorating the service of about 253,000 Turkish soldiers who participated at the Battle of Gallipoli, which took place from April 1915 to December 1915 during the First World War. It is loc ...

was shared as the 100,000th image taken by the satellite.

Dispute with Israel

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

started a pressure campaign on the French company

, which is one of the shareholders of Telespazio. Israel expressed its fear that the high resolution imagery taken by Göktürk-1 over its territory could eventually fall into the wrong hands. Israel, which supplies some of the critical electro-optical parts of the satellite's high-technology camera system to

, stipulated that Göktürk-1 should be made incapable of taking imagery as long as it is over Israel. Turkey, after having received such information, demanded from the contractor Thales Group that it has to prove the satellite can take imagery from any location desired. The French producer initially rejected this demand, but later decided to accept it, after the Turkish government responded by stopping the payments. Turkish bureaucrats also requested the launch of the satellite to be made by an experienced and well-known space company. Thales Group, on the other hand, originally proposed to commission a launch company without too much experience in order to cut the costs.

Launch

After numerous delays due to political and business disputes, which were finally solved, the satellite was launched from the Guiana Space Center at 13:51:44 UTC, on 5 December 2016, on flight VV08 of the

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

Vega Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It has the Bayer designation α Lyrae, which is Latinised to Alpha Lyrae and abbreviated Alpha Lyr or α Lyr. This star is relatively close at only from the Sun, and ...

rocket. Four years earlier, Göktürk-2, another Earth observation satellite of the Göktürk series (however with lower resolution compared to Göktürk-1) was successfully placed in orbit on December 18, 2012.

References

External links

GÖKTÜRK-1 on leonardocompany.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gokturk-1 Reconnaissance satellites of Turkey Ministry of National Defense (Turkey) Spacecraft launched in 2016 2016 in Turkey Spacecraft launched by Vega rockets Military equipment introduced in the 2010s

Dispute with Israel

Launch

See also

References

External links