Turkish Space Systems, Integration and Test Centre ( tr, Uzay Sistemleri, Entegrasyon ve Test Merkezi) (USET) is a spacecraft production and testing facility owned by the

Ministry of National Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in stat ...

and operated by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI). It is located in Ankara, Turkey. The facility's official inauguration took place on May 21, 2015 in presence of President

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the List of presidents of Turkey, 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as Lis ...

. Considered as a critical infrastructure, the centre was established within the framework of the

Göktürk-1 Göktürk-1 (also Göktürk-1A) is a high resolution earth observation satellite (greater than 50 cm) designed and developed for the Turkish Ministry of National Defence by the Italian space service company Telespazio with technological i ...

project, which started in 2009, for the indigenous realization of satellite assembly, as well as for qualification and

acceptance testing In engineering and its various subdisciplines, acceptance testing is a test conducted to determine if the requirements of a specification or contract are met. It may involve chemical tests, physical tests, or performance tests. In systems en ...

from design to launch phase. It was the product of an agreement between the Turkish Ministry of National Defence and the multinational space services company Telespazio in 2010. Situated within TAI's grounds in the Kazan district of Ankara Province, the budgeted cost of the facility is US$100 million. USET is a technology centre, at which all satellites up to mass can be assembled and tested in simulated space environmental conditions related to the orbit. Two satellites can be produced and tested at the simultaneously. The centre serves military and civilian institutions. Development of the Türksat series communication satellites, starting with Türksat 5A, and Göktürk series

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 ...

s, will be carried out by Turkish engineers at this site. At the end of November 2014, it was announced that the construction of the facility was completed, and the centre was put into operation. The centre's Class 100,000 clean rooms cover an area of around . It is capable of the assembly, integration and testing of several satellites of type Low Earth orbit (LEO) and

Geosynchronous orbit A geosynchronous orbit (sometimes abbreviated GSO) is an Earth-centered orbit with an orbital period that matches Earth's rotation on its axis, 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds (one sidereal day). The synchronization of rotation and orbital ...

(GEO) with a mass up to five tonnes simultaneously. It has a direct connection to the airbase so that a transport by land becomes needless, offering advantages of security, economy and risk management. The centre has the following capabilities: * thermal vacuum tests, * EMI/ EMC tests, * compact antenna measurement range (CATR) tests, * solar array deployment tests, * vibration tests, *

mass properties Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

measurement, * acoustic tests, and * MLI preparation. The advanced integration and environmental tests of Göktürk-1 is the first project to be carried out in the centre. After completion, the satellite will be sent to the launch site by TUSAŞ.

References

{{authority control Space program of Turkey Ministry of National Defense (Turkey) Kahramankazan Space technology research institutes Buildings and structures completed in 2014 2014 establishments in Turkey Buildings and structures in Ankara Province