Türksat 5A, is a Turkish

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a Transponder (satellite communications), transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a Rad ...

, operated by Türksat A.Ş. for commercial and military purposes.

History

According to an agreement signed in September 2011, the satellite was developed by specialists in cooperation with Türksat and

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 ...

(TAI). It was produced in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

(TAI) at its newly established Satellite Assembly Integration and Test Facility () (UMET) in

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

with 20% indigenously developed technology. Türksat 5A is the first geostationary communications satellite built in Turkey. It was reported in early 2013 that

Mitsubishi Electric is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational electronics and electrical equipment manufacturing company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1921 as a spin-off from the electrical machinery manufacturing d ...

(MELCO) of Japan, which is constructing the satellite platforms of

Türksat 4A Türksat 4A is a Turkish communications satellite, operated by Türksat. It was constructed by Mitsubishi Electric (MELCO) of Japan, based on the MELCO DS2000 satellite bus, and was launched by the American-Russian joint-venture company Internat ...

and

Türksat 4B Türksat 4B is a Turkish communications satellite, operated by Türksat. Overview According to the in-orbit delivery contract signed in early 2011, Mitsubishi Electric (MELCO) of Japan was in charge of the construction of the satellite's base ...

, might join the project to provide a MELCO DS2000 satellite bus for the satellite. But on 9 November 2017,

Airbus Defence and Space Airbus Defence and Space is a division of Airbus SE. Formed in 2014 in the restructuring of European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS), Airbus SE comprises the former Airbus Military, Astrium, and divisions. Contributing 21% of Airbus reven ...

was selected to construct the satellite platforms for Türksat 5A using Eurostar E3000EOR, an all-electric variant of Eurostar E3000.

Launch

The spacecraft was launched on 8 January 2021 at 02:15:00 UTC from

Cape Canaveral Cape Canaveral () is a cape (geography), cape in Brevard County, Florida, in the United States, near the center of the state's Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. Officially Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, it lies east of Merritt Island, separated ...

(CCSFS), SLC-40. Türksat 5A will be placed in a

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 ...

at 31° East to provide telecommunication and direct TV broadcasting services over a broad geographic region between west of China and east of England stretching over Turkey, as well as Europe,

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

, the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. It has a launch mass of carrying 42 K_u-band

transponders In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a flight trans ...

. The expected on-orbit life time will be 15 years, but the more efficient electric thrusters will allow Turksat 5A to maintain its position in orbit for more than 30 years, double the life span of many large communications satellites, according to Airbus.

Controversy

On 29 October 2020,

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

protesters gathered outside of the

Hawthorne, California Hawthorne is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California. It is part of a seventeen-city subregion of the Los Angeles metropolitan area commonly known as the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay. As of the 2020 United States cens ...

headquarters of the TurkSat 5A launch provider

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

to protest the satellite's launch, demanding SpaceX not launch the satellite, claiming that it will be used against military and civilian targets in the disputed

Nagorno-Karabakh Nagorno-Karabakh (, ; ) is a region in Azerbaijan, covering the southeastern stretch of the Lesser Caucasus mountain range. Part of the greater region of Karabakh, it spans the area between Lower Karabakh and Syunik Province, Syunik. Its ter ...

region. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment on the protests. TurkSat 5A would greatly extend the range of drone operations from the west of Europe to the east of

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

, with more resistance against jamming, rejection and wiretapping; high-definition live streams of targets and commanding of munitions drops.

References

{{Orbital launches in 2021 Communications satellites of Turkey Spacecraft launched in 2021 2021 in Turkey Satellites using the Spacebus bus SpaceX commercial payloads Communications satellites in geostationary orbit

History

Launch

Controversy

See also

References