Turkey will now launch a new satellite – Türksat 5A – in 2016, said Binali Yildirim, Minister for Transportation and Communication. The relatively small 16 Ku-band transponder satellite (plus 4 C-band transponders) is being built by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) and Mitsubishi Electric and construction of the satellite will start next year.

The 2016 launch is at least 6 months later than first anticipated. The craft will be located at 31 degrees East. The satellite will be launched by International Launch Services atop a Proton rocket.

Turkey launched its first home-produced craft (RASAT) in 2011 and the Göktürk-2 satellite on December 18, 2012. Nihat Ergun, Minister for Science, Industry and Technology, has recently announced Turkey’s preparing a 10-year investment in a programme for satellite technologies.

Turksat 2A and 3A are in use at 42 degrees East, but 2A (launched in 2001) will need to be replaced. However, Turksat 4A, with a launch date of 2014 is part of that replacement cycle and has 28 Ku-band transponders, while Turksat 4B is also planned for launch later in 2014 and placed at 50 degrees East.

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2. TeleSUR comes to Europe
3. Naspers decision: Tencent down, Prosus up
4. Bank: SES/Intelsat merger worthwhile?
5. Bank: LBG Media rated Buy
6. Kuiper, OneWeb agree on orbital debris
7. SpaceX claims 5G interference from Dish Network
8. Musk shows no mercy
9. Intelsat looks to wrap bankruptcy claims

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