Antonov Airlines and Bollore Logistics have teamed-up to transport Turkey's new telecommunication satellite Turksat 5B for launch in Florida.
Antonov said in a statement that the satellite was moved on board one of its AN-124-100 aircraft from Toulouse, France, to Florida, US, later launched by the US aerospace company SpaceX.
The cargo weighed a total of 60 tonnes including a special container measuring 14.69 m in length, 5.45 m in width, and 4.36 m in height, designed by Airbus Defence and Space specifically for moving these types of satellites on AN-124-100 aircraft.
"An external crane in conjunction with the onboard crane and winch of the AN-124-100 was used to load and unload the container, as well as special loading equipment designed and manufactured by Antonov’s in-house engineers," said Sergii Bilozerov, commercial executive, Antonov Airlines.
SpaceX launched the Turksat 5B satellite on December 18 from Cape Canaveral on behalf of Turkey and the satellite will serve Turkey and neighbouring countries for 35 years.
