IndoStar-1

IndoStar-1, which also known as Cakrawarta-1, is a communication satellite that was launched the evening of November 12, 1997 at 21:48 GMT aboard an Ariane 44L-3 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, as the first direct broadcasting satellite (DBS) in Asia, IndoStar-1 would initiate a new communication service for Indonesian society such as direct-to-home television.

The IndoStar-1 geostationary broadcast satellite (the first STAR-1 spacecraft bus) and the Turn-Key IndoVision Direct To Home (DTH) program was developed by Thomas van der Heyden. The satellite was built by a team of engineers at the US company Defense Systems Inc. (DSI), which had up until the IndoStar program (later renamed Cakrawarta by the then president of Indonesia - Suharto), focused on Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites for the US government, DARPA and NASA.

Under the contract DSI together with its sister company International Technologies Inc. (ITI) constructed the Indostar-1 satellite program for on-orbit turn-key delivery for the Indonesian television broadcasting company PT Media Citra Indostar (MCI). The Turn-Key, End-to-End contract, which included; Launch, Tracking Telemetry & Control Station, Up-Link Station for 60 MPEG television channels, Integrated Receiver Decoder (IRD) design, ITU regulatory filings, insurance, and spacecraft - was the first fully turn key contract in the commercial satellite industry.

In 1995 DSI was sold to Computer Technology Associates (CTA) which was sold two years later to Orbital Sciences Corporation during the final stages of the Indostar-1 satellite integration in early 1997. The Indostar-1 satellite design was developed from scratch by Thomas van der Heyden and Dr. George Sebestyen founder of DSI, became the first GEO LightSat, their STAR Bus platform.

The Cakrawarta satellite was successfully launched into the geostationary orbital slot located at 107.7 East Longitude above Indonesia by the ArianeSpace 44L launch vehicle on November 12, 1997, co-manifested with the Sirius-2 satellite.

IndoStar-1 was the world's first commercial communications satellite to use S-band frequencies for broadcast (pioneered by van der Heyden), which efficiently penetrate the atmosphere and provide high-quality transmissions to small-diameter 80 cm antennas in regions that experience heavy rainfall such as Indonesia. Similar performance is not economically feasible with comparable Ku- or C-band DTH satellite systems since more power is required in these bands to penetrate the moist atmosphere.

...
Wikipedia