SpaceX to launch Turkish satellites, minister says

Turkey's Turksat 5A and 5B satellites will be launched by Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), Turkish Transport Minister Ahmet Arslan said on Thursday.

"Our friends decided to launch our satellites with the Falcon 9 rockets of Airbus' subcontractor, SpaceX," Arslan said at an event in Istanbul.

In October, Airbus submitted the best bid to build the satellites. The 5A satellite will be launched in 2020 and the 5B in 2021.

(Reporting by Can Sezer; Writing by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Tuvan Gumrukcu)