Palapa satellite

Palapa is a series of communication satellites owned by Indosat, an Indonesian telecommunication company. All the satellites were launched by the United States, starting with the first in July 1976, at which time Indonesia became the first developing country to operate its own domestic satellite system.

The estimated cost for this project is $1 billion.

The first satellite was first launched on 7:31 P.M. July 8, 1976 Florida time, or at 6:31 A.M. Western Indonesian Time, on July 9, 1976 on a US rocket from the Kennedy Space Center.

The name "Palapa" was bestowed by then Indonesian President Suharto, after Palapa oath taken in 1334 by Gajah Mada, the Prime Minister of Majapahit Kingdom. According to the Pararaton (Book of Kings), Gajah Mada swore that he would not taste any palapa (historians suggest it refers to spice or a kind of flavouring), as long as he had not succeeded in unifying Nusantara (the Indonesian archipelago). After watching the launching process of the satellite via television in Jakarta, President Suharto revealed his reason on naming the satellite "palapa"; to show that Indonesia had a glorious past, and also hope that the system can unite the archipelago.

The Palapa D satellite was manufactured by Thales Alenia Space and launched aboard a Chinese Long March 3B rocket on 31 August 2009. However it failed to reach the intended orbit following a failure of the third stage of the rocket to reignite as planned. Thanks to SpaceBus platform efficiency, the satellite was recovered and maneuvered into the correct geosynchronous orbit by September, but this left it with only enough fuel for 10 years in orbit, a third less than contracted. This US$200 million satellite has more transponders than its predecessors (40 transponders, C2 only has 36). 40% of its transponders will be used by Indosat for their own purposes while the other 60% will be rented to others.

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Wikipedia