Turkey to build its first domestic cosmodrome

Turkey will build its own cosmodrome and the Institute for Space Research (Uzay Ajansi), the Turkish newspaper Sabah said Mar.4 referring to Minister of Transport, Maritime and Communication of Turkey Lutfi Elvan, az.kz reports referring to KazTAG.

Elvan said the place for construction of the cosmodrome and the institute has already been defined.

“Cosmodrome and the Institute for Space Research will be built on the territory of one of the central provinces of Turkey,” Elvan said, adding that construction of the cosmodrome and the institute are among the country's priorities.

It is planned that after the construction of the cosmodrome, Turkey will launch domestic satellites from it, as well as lease the launch complexes.

All Turkish satellites were launched into space from the Kazakh cosmodrome Baikonur and the Chinese base Jiuquan.

The first Turkish reconnaissance satellite RASAT was launched in 2011.

Turkey launched its second satellite - Gokturk-2 from the Chinese Jiuquan base on December 18, 2012. The satellite is used for defense purposes.
Turkey plans to launch Turksat 3A satellite in 2019.