Indosat Ready to Launch Palapa-D Satellite from China

President Director and Chief Executive Officer of PT Indosat, Tbk, Harry Sasongko, has said that the telecommunication and multimedia company with more than 30 million customers is ready to operate satellite Palapa-D that is scheduled to be launched this afternoon.

“We hope there will be no problems,” he said when having dinner with representatives from the Indonesian Ambassador to China, and some of Indosat’s partners and customers in Beijing, China, on Sunday evening.

The satellite will be launched from Xichang Space Launch Center in Xichang, Sichuan Province, China.

Design and specification of the satellite made by Thales Alenia Space France is arranged by the Indosat team.

It is planned that the satellite will replace Palapa C-2 the operational period of which will come to an end in 2011.

The cost for the development and launching of this new satellite is between US$200 million and US$300 million.

Indosat has prepared a building in Jatiluhur, Purwakarta, in West Java, as a place from which to operate the new satellite.

The building has two floors and is 2,500 square meters in size. The satellite control, traffic monitoring, and maintenance will be carried out from here. Indosat officially opened the building on August 14.

In addition, Harry explained that some experts for this building had been trained in France. “We are ready to operate Palapa-D,” he said.

Palapa-D is planned to have an operational life of 15 years and has more capability than previous satellites. Its coverage includes Asia, the Middle East and Australia.

Source : Tempointeractive.Com