[Satellite TODAY 12-29-10] Turkey plans to send 3USAT, the nation’s first homemade communications test satellite, into orbit in September, satellite communications operator Turksat announced Dec. 28.
    The satellite, under development at the Istanbul Technical University, is part of a Turksat program to manufacture Turkey’s first communications satellite by 2015.
    “The satellite will provide wireless voice transmission over an amateur band between two groups of people at two distant locations. Next month, we will announce where the new satellite will be launched from,” Istanbul Technical University Professor Alim Rustem Aslan said in a statement.
    India placed Turkey’s first homemade cubic satellite into orbit in September 2009.