Indonesia's Palapa-C1 launching rescheduled

Indonesia's Palapa-C1 launching rescheduled

JAKARTA (JP): The government is lobbying the European Space
Agency to have French Arianespace launch Indonesia's Palapa-C1
satellite as originally scheduled.

PT Satelindo's Director of satellite systems, Sahala Silalahi,
said that the Palapa-C1 was originally scheduled to be brought to
French Guiana this August, from where it would be launched into
orbit in October or November.

Sahala, Iwa Sewaka, Satelindo's president and Adi R. Adiwoso,
Satelindo's commercial director, visited Arianespace last week to
discuss the Palapa-C1 launching schedule.

"But Arianespace set new launching schedules for several
satellites after the French company failed in two launchings last
year," informed Sahala.

According to the new launching schedules, the Palapa-C1 will
be launched in May 1996, instead of October or November this
year, Sahala added.

Satelindo, which operates the domestic satellites as well as
international and digital cellular telecommunications services,
is 60 percent owned by PT Bima Graha, a subsidiary of the widely-
diversified Bimantara Group, 10 percent by PT Indosat and 30
percent by PT Telkom, both state-owned companies.

Since taking over the satellite business from state-owned PT
Telkom, Satelindo has managed the Palapa-C generation.

In January last year, Ariane's flight 63 failed to launch its
44LP rocket, which was carrying two satellites, the Turksat-1A
and the Eutelsat-2. The rocket plunged into the Atlantic Ocean,
causing a loss of about US$356 million to insurers.

Last December, Ariane's flight 70 also malfunctioned and
failed to launch Panamsat, a $150 million satellite owned by the
United States.

It was the seventh failure since the consortium commenced its
program 15 years ago. Arianespace is made up of France's
Aerospatiale, Britain's Aerospace, the Netherlands' Fokker Space
and Systems and Germany's Deutsche Aerospace.

Due to the incidents, Arianespace has rescheduled Palapa-C1's
launching to May 1996, while the ISO satellite will be launched
in its place in October or November this year, Sahala said.

ISO is a scientific satellite owned by the European Space
Agency (ESA) grouping 12 European countries, including France,
Britain, the Netherlands, Finland, Spain and Germany.

Sahala said that the capacity of the Palapa-B2P, the satellite
currently in orbit and soon to be replaced by the Hughes-built
Palapa-C1, will get weaker later this year. The transmission
quality of the broadcasting services that lease the Palapa-B2P's
transponders will also not be optimum.

The coverage of the Palapa-B2P, orbiting at 113 degrees east
longitude, is limited to southeastern Asia, while the Palapa-C1
will cover a wider area including Hong Kong, Myanmar, Cambodia,
Vietnam, Macau, New Zealand and eastern Australia.

The Palapa-C1, with a lifespan of about 14 years, has a total
of 34 transponders, 28 of which will be operated by Satelindo,
while six others will be managed by PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara.

More than 21 parties have agreed to lease Palapa-C1's
transponders. Among the coming lessees are broadcasting firms
from the United States, Australia, France, Malaysia, New Zealand
and the Philippines.

Currently there are 13 countries leasing Palapa-B2P's
transponders at about $1.2 million per unit.

Iwa Sewaka said that the government wanted the Palapa-C1 to be
launched in October or November 1995, its original schedule, and
for its backup satellite, the Palapa-C2, to be launched six
months after should anything go wrong with the Palapa-C1 launch.

"We don't know yet whether Satelindo will hold an open tender
or make a repeat order to the same company to launch Palapa-C2,"
he said. (icn)