Turkiye’s first mini satellite successfully emitted its first signals, its developer said late Thursday.
“The first signals were successfully received from our satellite Grizu-263A. Our satellite is alive!!!” Grizu-263 Space Team said on Twitter.
Satellite is in orbit and operational
Grizu-263A 🚀🛰️ pic.twitter.com/C4lDQGgBxx
— Grizu-263 Uzay Takımı (@grizu263) January 13, 2022
“Pride. We designed, manufactured, tested and launched into space. Now our satellite, Grizu-263A, is on its duty safe and sound,” space team captain Cagla Aytac Dursun said in a tweet.
Grizu-263A was launched into space Thursday on US aerospace company SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in the US state of Florida.
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Established in 2016 by engineering students from Zonguldak Bulent Ecevit University in northern Turkiye, the Grizu-263 Space Team aims to work on space and satellite technologies and participate in international competitions.
The team was named after a firedamp explosion that killed 263 miners in Kozlu district in 1992. The Turkish word for firedamp is grizu.
The mini-satellite, which is 5x5x5 centimeters, will locate on a low Earth orbit of 525 kilometers and operate for four years and eight months.
The Grizu-263 team has been attending the satellite competition of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), named “AAS CanSat,” since 2017. The team finished 25th in 2017 and second in 2018 and 2019. In 2020 and 2021, the team’s projects achieved fourth place.
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Turkey which is one of the 30 countries having satellites in the orbit, has five communication and three surveillance satellites.
Anadolu with additional input by GVS News Desk