Turkey's largest satellite, FGN-100-d1, developed by Fergani Uzay and produced by a private company, successfully entered orbit following its launch on January 15, 2025, at 22:09 local time from the United States' Vandenberg Space Force Base.
The satellite, weighing 102 kilograms, was transported as part of the Transporter-12 mission under the Rideshare Program. Approximately 62 minutes after launch, FGN-100-d1 separated from the launch vehicle and successfully settled into its orbit at an altitude of 500 kilometers. It has begun its operations by transmitting telemetry data.
Selçuk Bayraktar, CEO of Fergani Uzay, stated that this launch marks the first step in the Positioning Team Satellite Project. He expressed ambitions to develop a global positioning system named 'Uluğ Bey' within five years, aiming to deploy a total of 100 satellites.
FGN-100-d1, operating in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO), will travel at a speed of 7.6 km/s, completing approximately 15 orbits around the Earth daily. The satellite is equipped with three redundant flight computers and aims to successfully test its operational capabilities, including telemetry, telecommand communication, positioning, and payload communication.
Bayraktar emphasized that the project is entirely funded by domestic resources, reflecting Turkey's commitment to advancing its space technology ecosystem.
In a related development, Plan-S has also launched four additional satellites as part of its Connecta IoT Network, bringing the total number of satellites in this network to eight. These satellites are designed to enhance IoT communication services globally, with plans to expand the network to over 200 satellites in the near future.