The 77th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), organized by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), of which Anadolu Agency is the "Global Communication Partner", is being held at Antalya NEST Congress Center, under the coordination of the Ministry of Industry and Technology, and hosted by the Turkish Space Agency (TUA) and SAHA Istanbul.
"HÜRSAT-2 Project Contract Signing Ceremony" was held at the TAI pavilion with the participation of Presidency Defense Industry Vice President Mustafa Şeker, Defense Industry Vice President Hüseyin Avşar, TAI General Manager Mehmet Demiroğlu and ROKETSAN General Manager Murat Ikinci.
HÜRSAT, Türkiye's first mass-produced satellite family, can be configured according to different mission needs in the mass range of 200-650 kilograms. In this context, the testing activities of HÜRSAT-1, developed by TAI, continue at TAI.
HÜRSAT-1, whose pre-launch preparation activities are continuing at TAI facilities, will verify the system's basic technologies and mass-producible satellite architecture with missions to be carried out in orbit.
With the HÜRSAT-2 project contract, in which the weight of HÜRSAT-1 will be reduced, the HÜRSAT family will not be an additional satellite project, but a satellite family suitable for mass production that can be adapted to different user and mission needs through a common architecture.
Different user needs can be met through the same satellite family
The project aims to reduce production times and costs, create a sustainable supply chain and increase TAI's global commercial competitiveness in the satellite field.
HÜRSAT also supports constellation architecture, in which multiple satellites can operate together in low earth orbit. By increasing the number of satellites, it will be possible to image the same region more frequently, access data in a shorter time, and meet different user needs through the same satellite family.
HÜRSAT, which is planned to operate in sun-synchronous orbit with sub-meter resolution, wide-area imaging capability, will offer multi-mission capability with its compact satellite architecture.
While the satellite computer, power and interface units, and ground and flight software are developed by TAI, command-control activities will also be carried out by TAI. Thus, HÜRSAT will be developed and operated with an end-to-end national system architecture, from the satellite platform to the ground segment.
"We will send it to space with our own means"
Speaking at the ceremony, Şeker stated that two important organizations cooperated and combined their two strong muscles and said, "We are signing the agreement for the launch of our satellite developed by TAI with the launch system developed by our company ROKETSAN. It is a proud contract for all of us, I hope it will be beneficial, and I would like to thank all our companies and all SSB personnel for their efforts." he said.
Defense Industry Vice President Hüseyin Avşar said that Türkiye, which has been one of the few countries in the world that has been able to produce its own satellites so far, will be among the rare countries that can launch and send its own satellites into space in the future.
Emphasizing that they have laid the foundations of this cooperation today, Avşar said, "As a country, we will send the satellite developed by our TAI into space with the launch system developed by our ROKETSAN, with our own means." he said.
"It will be put into serial production"
TAI General Manager Mehmet Demiroğlu also stated that the signings were a very nice moment for them and used the following expressions:
"Because Turkey will not only build and operate its own satellite, but also launch it and put it into mass production. We planned the HÜRSAT platform in this way as a family. Our satellites will now meet in space locally, including all their mission payloads, software, ground stations and operation, everything. Hopefully, this is the beginning, but the first step of a long journey."
"Türkiye's technological influence in space is increasing"
ROKETSAN General Manager Murat İkin underlined that they all witnessed one of the historic days in Türkiye's space road map.
Pointing out that Türkiye has long been in the status of a country that builds its own satellites, İkik said:
"With this agreement, we, as ROKETSAN, will hopefully take another historic step with our Şimşek platform, which will carry our own satellite into space. Türkiye's technological weight in space is increasing and gaining a greater meaning. Turkey showed at the fair here that it is a truly serious player in space travel, along with other countries in the world. In the next stages, as ROKETSAN, we are determined to carry not only our own satellite into space, but also the satellites of many friendly and brother countries. With the signature we will sign today, this "We will have signed our first contract in this regard."
