Aselsan unveils homegrown satellite constellation at congress

Aselsan CEO Ahmet Akyol unveiled the defense firm's new low Earth orbit communications satellite constellation on Monday at the 77th International Astronautical Congress in Antalya, highlighting the Gokbagi project as a milestone in Türkiye's pursuit of space technology independence. The Gokbagi network — marketed internationally as Astralink — is designed to provide efficient communications services for military, public and civilian sectors, according to the Turkish defense electronics giant. "At the congress, we're displaying our Gokbagi project for the first time, which we designed from the chip level up," Akyol told Anadolu Agency on the sidelines of the event, co-hosted by the Turkish Space Agency (TUA) and SAHA Istanbul.

Launch timeline and ground systems

Akyol stated that the firm plans to begin launching the first satellites of the constellation within the next few years, marking a concrete step toward orbital deployment. The project incorporates satellite receivers based on active electronically scanned array (AESA) technology for ground services, allowing operators to digitally track satellites without adjusting antennas for more effective communications.

AI integration and manufacturing

The CEO noted that Aselsan has invested in new space manufacturing infrastructure at its recently constructed campus, enabling the firm to build and process surveillance, communications and navigation systems in orbit. "Today, we're talking about artificial intelligence (AI) in space, entering a new era where all these surveillance, communications and navigation systems are built and processed in orbit and transmitted back to Earth — we came to this event from TEKNOFEST, where thousands of young enthusiasts competed in satellite competitions," he said. Aselsan is also displaying its Gokturk-3 synthetic aperture radar satellite at the congress, which captures high-resolution images of the terrestrial surface through dense cloud cover.