15 Proceedings for the First Symposium on Space Economy, Space Law and Space Sciences Invited Proceedings Paper Submitted: 29.05.2021 Accepted: 12.11.2021 Corresponding author: Emine TAHSİN / tahsin@istanbul.edu.tr Citation: Tahsin, E., & Boru, F. (2022). An Investigation of Turkiye’s Space Activities in the Context of Technological Capabilities and Mission-Oriented Tasks. In B. E. Balin, V. N. Akun & S. Alis (Eds.), Proceedings for the First Symposium on Space Economy, Space Law and Space Sciences (pp. 15-31). https://doi.org/10.26650/PB/SS46PS01.2022.001.002 DOI: 10.26650/PB/SS46PS01.2022.001.002 An Investigation of Turkiye’s Space Activities in the Context of Technological Capabilities and Mission- Oriented Tasks Emine TAHSİN 1 , Furkan BÖRÜ 2 1 Assoc. Prof. Dr., Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, Department of Economics, Istanbul, Turkiye 2 Dr, Türkiye Vakıflar Bankası T.A.O., Istanbul, Turkiye ORCID: E.T. 0000-0003-0349-2381; F.B. 0000-0001-9239-1341 ABSTRACT This paper aims to focus on Turkiye’s space-related activities, considering the basic pillars and dimensions covered by space activities in the 21 st century. Given the structural characteristics of the space economy, the capacity of Turkiye’s space activities to involve in global space activities would be investigated. In doing so, this paper suggests that Turkiye’s space-related efforts could be worked through with the dynamics of the “space 4.0” stage and a series of institutional changes and strategies accordingly. The paper will be based on the opinion that such tasks contain phenomena that pose grand societal challenges. For this reason, to overcome these challenges, both a long-term perspective and many different disciplines must work together. Given that, the main framework of the mission-oriented tasks could be evaluated for Turkiye’s space vision. It would be asserted that mission- oriented tasks related to space-related activities need to consider the technological capacity and the decisiveness of actors that would be involved in these activities. Hence, the technological capacity and the entrepreneurial state approaches to contextualise mission-oriented policies for space-related activities would be utilised. In this context, the decisiveness of the role to be played by the state would be evaluated. It would be concluded that for the purpose of creating new technologies and sectors, the technological capacity approach would be functional in setting up science, technology, and industrial policies related to space-related activities. Keywords: Technological capacity, The entrepreneurial state, Mission-oriented projects and space economy, Turkiye’s space activities Jel Codes: O3, O5, O32