Turkey to launch intelligence satellite in 2012

2 October 2010

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Turkey would launch a national intelligence satellite in 2012.

The intelligence satellite named "Gokturk" was being built by Turkish engineers, the prime minister said during an amphibious ship launching ceremony in Tuzla, Istanbul.

The semi-official Anatolia news agency quoted him as saying: " Thus, we have ended our foreign dependence in the construction of particularly military ships."

According to an earlier report, Turkey will launch RASAT, the first observation satellite designed and produced by Turkish engineers, from Yasny Launch Base located in a southwestern Russian blast bordering Kazakhstan this year.

RASAT was produced by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey -- Space Technologies Research Institute and funded by the State Planning Organization.