ANKARA (Xinhua) – Turkey on Saturday successfully launched its first indigenous high-resolution Earth observation satellite, called the IMECE, into space.
The Turkish-made pioneering satellite was blasted off early on Saturday from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in the U.S. state of California at 0648 GMT.
The launch marks the first time that Turkey will have an electro-optical satellite camera with sub-meter resolution in orbit.
The IMECE’s orbit will be sun-synchronous at an altitude of 680 kilometers (422.5 miles) and serve in the areas of defense, disaster management, environment and urbanization, and agriculture and forestry.
During its mission span of five years, the satellite will take images from around the world.
Speaking at the launch ceremony, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey had designed, produced, assembled, integrated, and tested the satellite’s subsystems by itself.
IMECE can take images from all around world, not just Turkey, with its high-resolution electro-optical camera.