Türksat 5A, is a Turkish

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth ...

, 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 Inc. ( tr, Türk Havacılık ve Uzay Sanayi A.Ş., TUSAŞ) is the center of technology in design, development, manufacturing, integration of aerospace systems, modernization and after sales support in Turkey. Located in Ankara ...

(TAI). It was produced in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

(TAI) at its newly established Satellite Assembly Integration and Test Facility ( tr, Uydu Montaj Entegrasyon ve Test) (UMET) in

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

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 (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 Interna ...

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 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 (CCSFS),

SLC-40 Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), previously Launch Complex 40 (LC-40) is a launch pad for rockets located at the north end of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The launch pad was used by the United States Air Force for 55 Titan III ...

. Türksat 5A will be placed in a geosynchronous orbit 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, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

, the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

and

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

. 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 tran ...

. 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 across the ...

protesters gathered outside of the

Hawthorne, California Hawthorne is a city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, located in southwestern Los Angeles County, California. It is part of a seventeen-city region commonly called the South Bay. As of the 2020 US census, Hawthorne had a population of 88, ...

headquarters of the TurkSat 5A launch provider SpaceX to protest the satellites 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 landlocked region in the South Caucasus, within the mountainous range of Karabakh, lying between Lower Karabakh and Syunik, and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains. The region is m ...

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 transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

, 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