Türksat 4A 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. It was constructed by

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, based on the MELCO DS2000

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 ...

, and was launched by the American-Russian joint-venture company

International Launch Services International Launch Services, Inc. (ILS) is a joint venture with exclusive rights to the worldwide sale of commercial Angara and Proton rocket launch services. Proton launches take place at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan while Angara is l ...

(ILS) atop a Russian

Proton-M The Proton-M, (Протон-М) GRAU index 8K82M or , is an Expendable launch system, expendable Russian heavy-lift launch vehicle derived from the Soviet Union, Soviet-developed Proton (rocket family), Proton. It is built by Khrunichev State R ...

space launch vehicle on February 14, 2014, at 21:09:03 from Site 81/24 of the

Baikonur Cosmodrome The Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport operated by Russia within Kazakhstan. Located in the Kazakh city of Baikonur, it is the largest operational space launch facility in terms of area. All Russian Human spaceflight, crewed spaceflights are l ...

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 ...

. The in-orbit delivery contract for the satellite was signed in March 2011. In the scope of the contract, Turkish engineers were trained in the facilities of MELCO in Japan. During the official visit of Prime Minister

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...

to Japan, the satellite was handed over by the Mitsubishi Electric to the Turkish officials in a ceremony on January 8, 2014. The initially planned launch date of Türksat 4A in November 2013 was postponed to February 2014 due to the suspension of the Proton-M launches because of problems, which arose on December 8, 2012. Türksat 4A is part of the Turksat series of satellites, and was placed in a temporary

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 50°E, where it will remain around three months. During this period, orbital and subsystem tests will be conducted. Thenafter, the satellite will be transferred to 42°E to provide telecommunication and direct TV broadcasting services over a wide geographic region between west of China and east of England spanning Turkey, as well as

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

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 ...

. Right after the satellite reached orbit, mission control and operational support was taken over by Gölbaşı Ground Station 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 ( ...

, which will conduct performance tests around month long. The first signal from the satellite is expected to arrive 9 hours and 13 minutes after the launch. Türksat 4A has a mass of approximately and an expected on-orbit life time of 15 years. It will consist of 28 K_u band, two K_a band and an undisclosed number of C band transponders. The use of K_a band will allow higher bandwidth communication, and thus reaching the southern regions of the

Sahara The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

in Africa that was not possible with former Türksat satellites. Türksat 4A will enable to cut cost of internet access, and will be also available for military-purpose broadcasting. It is expected that Türksat 4A will increase the communications capacity of Turkey three-fold.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turksat 4A Satellites using the Spacebus bus Satellites using the DS2000 bus Communications satellites of Turkey Communications satellites in geostationary orbit Spacecraft launched in 2014 Satellites made by Mitsubishi Electric

See also

References