Turkiye telecommunications satellite to be launched in mid-July

Turkiye’s latest indigenous telecommunications satellite will be launched into space next month after its final tests at the SpaceX facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the country’s Transportation and Infrastructure Minister said on Friday, Anadolu Agency reports.

Transported to the facility earlier this month, the Turksat 6A will be carried into orbit on a Falcon 9 rocket in mid-July, Abdulkadir Uraloglu said in a statement.

Uraloglu said that, once the space probe is in position, Turkiye’s satellite operator, Turksat, will be able to provide coverage to a substantially wider area including India, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

“Thus, with Turksat 6A, the population that Turkiye’s satellites cover will increase from 3.5 billion to over 5 billion. Turkiye will be able to reach more than 65 per cent of the world’s population with its own telecommunication satellites,” he said.

Uraloglu added that the Turksat 6A will be operational for 15 years.

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