Türksat 1A was 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 ...

as part of a project to form an instant network with two

geosynchronous 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 ...

satellites that is supervised by the companies Türksat A.Ş. in Turkey and

Aérospatiale Aérospatiale () was a major French state-owned aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and arms industry, defence corporation. It was founded in 1970 as () through the merger of three established state-owned companies: Sud Aviation, Nord Aviation ...

of France. Turkey's first spacecraft in its space program, Türksat 1A was launched by

Arianespace Arianespace SA is a French company founded in March 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It operates two launch vehicles: Vega C, a Small-lift launch vehicle, small-lift rocket, and Ariane 6, a Medium-lift launch vehicl ...

atop an Ariane-44LP H10+ launch vehicle, along with the French satellite Eutelsat 2F5, in a dual-payload launch on January 24, 1994, at 21:37:00

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

from

ELA-2 The Guiana Space Centre (; CSG), also called Europe's Spaceport, is a spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana, an overseas region of France in South America. Kourou is located approximately north of the equator at a latitude o ...

at the

Guiana Space Centre The Guiana Space Centre (; CSG), also called Europe's Spaceport, is a spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana, an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas region of France in South America. Kourou is located approxim ...

Kourou Kourou (; ) is a commune in French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France in South America. Kourou is famous for being the location of the Guiana Space Centre, the main spaceport of France and the European Space Agency (ESA). It ...

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

. It failed to reach the orbit as it was lost by falling into ocean due to malfunction of the launch vehicle's last stage 12 minutes and 12 seconds after lift-off. After successful launching of Türksat 1B the same year, Türksat 1A's mission was replaced by Türksat 1C, which was placed into orbit in 1996.

References

Spacecraft launched in 1994 Communications satellites of Turkey Satellite launch failures Turksat 1A {{Turkey-spacecraft-stub, nocat=yes

See also

References