the agreement to build göktürk-1 was signed on july 13, 2009 between the ministry of national defence and telespazio, a finmeccanica/thales group joint venture company, taking effect on july 19, 2009. thales alenia space is in charge of supplying the satellite bus. within the framework of the project, a facility for assembly, integration and testing of spacecraft (umet) up to mass will be established in turkey, which is considered as a critical infrastructure. the project is valued at more than € 250m.