SpaceX to launch Türksat 6A communications satellite Monday afternoon from Cape Canaveral

After bouncing around the range schedule a bit, SpaceX's upcoming launch of the Türksat 6A communications satellite is targeted for a Monday afternoon liftoff, a Federal Aviation Administration operations plan advisory shows.

Though SpaceX has yet to announce this mission, the Falcon 9 rocket liftoff target time is 5:20 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

"Türksat 6A is a satellite that will provide data relay for civil and military communications to the Anatolian peninsula as well as most of the European continent, the Middle East, and the westernmost part of the Russian federation," the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex reported.

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Officials at the KSC tourist attraction are touting Türksat 6A viewing opportunities for spectators on a first-come, first-served basis from bleachers 6.7 miles from the launch pad. The Falcon 9 will soar skyward on a due east trajectory, and the first-stage booster will descend and settle for landing atop a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

In December 2021, SpaceX launched the Türksat 5B communications satellite to geostationary orbit 22,236 miles above Earth. It joined Türksat 5A, which flew in January 2021 during the Cape's first rocket launch of that year.

In a Türksat press release issued in May, Turkish Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu stated thousands of engineers worked on the 6A satellite. He emphasized that Turkey is now one of the 10 countries that builds its own communication satellites.

"Communication is our most valuable asset, especially military communication is even more valuable. We are currently providing this, but in order to be safe and protect our space homeland, we will use the satellite that we produced and software for," Uraloğlu said in the press release.

Quelle: Florida Today

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Update: 9.07.2024

TURKSAT 6A MISSION

On Sunday, July 8 at 7:30 p.m. ET, SpaceX launched the Turksat 6A mission to geosynchronous transfer orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

This was the ninth flight of the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched CRS-26, OneWeb Launch 16, Intelsat IS-40e, O3b mPOWER, Ovzon 3, Eutelsat 36D, and eight Starlink missions.