May 7

Turkey will launch a small satellite next year as a test for an ambitious communication satellite in 2015, a communication company said here on Friday.

The semi-official Anatolia news agency quoted Ozkan Dalbay, director general of Turkey's satellite communications company TURKSAT, as saying: "TURKSAT plans to test a small satellite as early as 2011 and send it to space."

"This experience will be used in future broad-scale satellites, " the official added.

Dalbay said that TURKSAT will send a communication satellite, totally designed and manufactured in Turkey, to space at the beginning of 2015.

He said TURKSAT planned a 10-year satellite strategy, " according to the plan, we will launch the satellite to space in 2015 and 2017."

Within the scope of the project, he said, around 25 people attended technology transfer programs organized in foreign countries.

TURKSAT signed a cooperation protocol with Istanbul Technical University (ITU), he said, adding: "TURKSAT needs to share both academic and practical experience in planning stage. ITU launched a satellite to space last year."