Göktürk-1A is a high resolution earth observation satellite (greater than 50 cm) designed and developed for the Turkish Ministry of National Defence by the Italian space service company Telespazio. The Göktürk-1A satellite has a dry weight of about 1,000 kg and a design life of seven years. Its observation payload includes a high resolution optical instrument and an onboard X-band digital imaging system to handle data compression, storage and downloading.