Turkey may construct own spacecraft

Turkey plans to build a spaceport for launching satellites, the Sabah newspaper quotes Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying on Wednesday.

"Only 11 countries in the world have spaceports. After launching the second reconnaissance satellite Turkey will start to build spaceport in its territory," Erdogan said.

He said the launch of Turkey's second reconnaissance satellite Göktürk-2 is an indicator how the country has developed its aerospace industry.

Erdogan said that the Göktürk-2 satellite, building of which cost Turkey 140 million lira, is designed for a five-year period of use.

Turkey's second domestic reconnaissance satellite Göktürk-2 was launched yesterday.
The satellite was launched from the Jiuquan Chinese base at 18:13 Turkish time. With a resolution of 2.5 meters, the satellite will be used for defence purposes.

The first signal from the satellite will be received in Ankara at 21:25 local time. The first images from the satellite will be transferred on Dec.25-30.

Previously, in 2011, Turkey launched first domestic reconnaissance satellite RASAT.

It has been reported that the image resolution of the Göktürk-2 satellite will be three times larger than the RASAT satellite.

Creating satellites is part of a state programme aimed at ensuring the Turkish army is fully armed with equipment and kitting itself out. Currently, Turkey has achieved a 50 per cent level of self-sufficiency in this sphere.


/Trend/