“On Saturday, December 18 at 10:58 p.m. EST, Falcon 9 launched the Turksat 5B mission to geostationary transfer orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This was the third launch and landing of this booster, which previously supported launch of CRS-22 and Crew-3,” Space X said.

The Türksat 5B project, is a Turkish geostationary high-throughput (HTS) communications satellite of Türksat A.Ş. developed for military and commercial purposes, started in September 2011.

In November 2020, it was announced that satellite level tests for Türksat 5B have begun.

Türksat 5B will serve on a geostationary orbit at 42° East longitude. It was built on a Eurostar-3000EOR satellite bus manufactured by Airbus Defence and Space.

The satellite has a mass of 4,500 kg (9,900 lb) and an expected design lifetime of 15 years, maneuver lifetime of more than 35 years.

Powered by two deployable solar panels and batteries at 15 kW, the 50 Gbps high-throughput satellite consist of Ku-band, Ka-band and X-band transponders.

The 3 military X-band transponders have global coverage and were developed by Aselsan for use by the Turkish Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB/SSM). (ILKHA)