[FPSPACE] Turkey and Ikonos

[Dale Gray]

This past week I came upon a Lockheed Martin Press release at SpaceDaily.com
that stated that the Turkish armed forces had come to an agreement with
Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Space Imaging, and Cukurova Holding/INTA.  It
seemed to imply that Turkey was moving into remote sensing using Ikonos.

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"The Ikonos high-resolution satellite technology is ideally suited to meet
the current and future high-resolution needs of the Turkish Government,"
said Ed Irvin, director of commercial remote sensing programs for Lockheed
Martin. "We are proud to cooperate with Space Imaging and Cukurova in
addressing critical Turkish Government imaging needs, including defense,
urban planning and disaster preparedness and response."

"Forming a strategic alliance with satellite producer Lockheed Martin and
earth imagery satellite operator Space Imaging will enable the TAF to
acquire an earth imagery satellite at higher resolutions with better
technical characteristics," said Mehmet Sepil, Chief Executive Officer of
Cukurova / INTA Space Systems, Inc. "This alliance will also enable the TAF
to recover their investment by selling unused capacity of their satellite to
Cukurova/INTA for worldwide imagery distribution."

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When I read and then reread the article it seemed that it was saying that
Turkey was acquiring Ikonos and will be selling its excess capacity through
Cukurova/INTA.  Can anyone sort this out for me?  Are they acquiring the
satellite, or is it a typo and they are acquiring satellite images or the
right to use the satellite?

Dale Gray