Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır spoke at the “Türkiye’s First Lunar Mission Begins – Lunar Research Program” promotion meeting in Ankara.
Minister Kacır stated that the lunar spacecraft will be launched in the first months of 2027 and said, “We are sending our lunar spacecraft, for which we have completed the production, assembly and integration activities, to TAI to carry out system level environmental tests.”
Highlights from Minister Kacır’s statements:
We want to place our spacecraft on the lunar surface after completing our scientific studies. We will place our system on the lunar surface. We developed our spacecraft, which weighs approximately 3.5 tons, with an 80 percent local production rate.
We are sending our lunar spacecraft to TAI. We will check its durability with the tests here. After the tests are completed, we will send it to the Kenedy Space Station. We plan to send it into space in the first months of 2027.
The program we started at the beginning of 2022 has been completed at 77 percent. Our local companies and enterprises took part in the development processes of our Lunar Space Vehicle.
Our spacecraft will operate in a north-south orbit at an altitude of 100 km. After the orbital mission of our lunar spacecraft, we will land it on the lunar surface in a controlled manner.
THE TARGET IS TO BE THE 9TH COUNTRY IN SPACE MISSION
The program we started at the beginning of 2022 has been completed at 77 percent. Our local companies and enterprises took part in the development processes of our Lunar Space Vehicle. More than 200 engineers worked on the project. We plan to be the 9th country to conduct a lunar space mission.
We joined the Artemis Accord at the ceremony held at NASA Headquarters. We want to establish an ecosystem similar to the defense industry in space studies.
