Elon Musk’s footprints on Ankara satellites; Turkey’s most powerful satellite launched
Turkey’s Erdogan thanks Musk for helping with launch of satellite
ANKARA
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has thanked Elon Musk, the founder of electric carmaker Tesla and space exploration company SpaceX, for helping with the launch of Turksat 5A, a Turkish communications satellite.
The Turkish Presidency Friday released the video of Thursday’s conversation between the two, during which they discussed a number of issues ranging from the digital economy, Turkey’s National Space Program, and the country’s first domestic electric car TOGG.
Erdogan said the Turksat 5B satellite will be launched into space on Sunday via SpaceX, and thanked Musk for helping Turkey with the January launch of the 5A satellite.
“We’ll gift you with an NFT (non-fungible token) of satellite art created by 5,000 of our children,” he added.
Musk expressed gratitude for the gift, saying that he looks forward to “launching the satellite and doing many things with Turkey in the future.”
Musk, the richest man in the world, was recently named Person of the Year 2021 by Time magazine.
The new Turkish telecommunications satellite was launched on Sunday (December 19th) by the American company SpaceX.
Launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida, the Turkst 5B will reach 42 degrees east orbit in 164 days. It will then begin a 45-day trial process.
Airbus built the satellite and flew it from the United States to France on November 29. Turkish officials call the satellite the most powerful satellite in the country. This satellite will be able to transmit data with a capacity of more than 55 Gbps.
The efficiency of this satellite is at least 20 times higher than fixed class (FSS) satellites.
According to the report, in addition to Turkey, the entire Middle East, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, North and East Africa, Nigeria, South Africa and neighboring countries will be covered by the satellite.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the satellite in a video message as a “moment of pride for Turkey”.
“Today, we launched Turkestan 5B, the most powerful and high-capacity communication satellite in our country, and in this project, we also selected the Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket satellites,” she said.
She thanked Elon Musk and her company, SpaceX, for what she called “not bowing down to blackmail and pressure from anti-Turkish lobbies.”
This was not Elon Musk’s first collaboration with Turkey in launching a satellite, but last January another Turkish satellite, Turksat 5A, was launched by SpaceX.
Thus, the number of active communication satellites in Turkey will increase to five satellites and the total number of satellites in Turkey to eight.
Posted By d ureyen
Recognized as a genius of technologyexperts, Musk is the first and only private entrepreneur to carry material to the International Space Station around the world with the Space X rocket that can be used multiple times. The currently developed rocket is on the agenda to use for manned flight around 2030 to Mars.
Elon Musk was this week the guest of Turkey. He had a meeting with President Erdogan which is meaningful because the new local automobile investment of Turkey was presented last week. The first collaboration was announced after Musk’s meeting with Airbus’s main carrier,SpaceX, Turksat 5A and 5B satellites will be sent out in 2020 and 2021.
Transportation, Maritime and Communications Minister Ahmet Arslan, who realized 3rd Global SatShow’s opening speech, announced that Turksat 5A and 5B satellites will move away with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets. Elon Musk expressed that he was pleased that Falcon 9 was preferred to launch Turksat 5A and 5B in the distance, in a meeting with President Erdogan.
Although the issue of the launching the titles is shared as the main item in the agenda, the Turkish Presidential Spokesman İbrahim Kalın stated that this issue was not discussed. During the meeting, he said that also opinions were exchanged on the subject of electric cars, sustainable energy and joint ventures with companies in Turkey, like Tesla and SpaceX, which Elon Musk owns. Ibrahim Kalin said that the traffic problems in the big cities were also mentioned during the interview, and “topics such as tunnel digging and underground traffic were also discussed”.
We also know that Elon Musk’s big interest in transportation and the fact that he is intensely focused on The Boring Company, and in this context he also tries to determine the first countries where he can test his projects by interviewing relevant actors of many countries. So under this information we can say that Elon Musk may be able to make more visits to Turkey in the following periods, especially about tunneling and traffic underground.
The knowledge of Elon Musk and his team can be used on the newly developed domestic car, as well as the choice of Turkey for the production of Tesla batteries or Tesla vehicles. Solar City project, another important energy project initiated by Elon Musk, could also be the next step in Turkey’s energy production from solar energy. Turkey’s efficient hours of sunshine is quite high and it will be very valuable in terms of our future to store and use this energy in a storable system.
We can collect Elon Musk’s visit under many titles which can be very beneficial for Turkey also to Elon Musk. Considering the automotive sector success of Turkey in 2017 and also the big renewable energy potential can carry this partnership to another dimension. Elon Musk and his company is always very hungry to try breakthrough projects, and Turkey is a good field of study in geographical demographical and geopolitical sense.
Also after the social media post of Elon Musk we can see that he has a big interest in Turkey and he made researches and have good knowledge about its history. After his meeting with Erdogan, he went to Ataturk’s mouseloum and shared a good photo with meaningful caption. He gained a respect and love of the Turkish people too.
Conexio is a consulting firm in Turkey based in Istanbul that provides services to local and foreign companies with commercial or investment interests in the region.
Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about space yesterday.
Musk and Erdogan reportedly discussed cooperation on satellite and space technology as well as driverless cars powered by electricity. The conversation touched on Turkey’s plans to launch the Turksat 5-B satellite into space, Erdogan’s office said in a series of tweets.
Musk is the founder of SpaceX and Tesla, Inc. The former focuses on making space travel more affordable and colonizing Mars. Tesla produces clean energy products such as solar panels and vehicles, including electric cars and cars with self-driving functionality.
Turkey launched its Turksat 5A satellite into space in January using a SpaceX rocket.
Erdogan and Musk have an established relationship. They also spoke on the phone about satellites in January, and met in 2017 in Turkey to discuss electric cars and sustainable energy.
“It is an honor for me to talk with President Erdogan again,” said Musk about the conversation yesterday, according to a Turkish government release. Musk reportedly plans to visit Turkey soon.
Al-Monitor’s efforts to speak to Musk about the meeting were unsuccessful.
The Musk-Erdogan meeting coincided with Turkey’s ongoing economic crisis and the continued drop in value of its currency, the lira.
Musk recently sparred with US Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on Twitter about the amount he pays in taxes.
Musk has commented on Middle Eastern history before, tweeting in 2020 that aliens built the pyramids in Egypt.
