Telkom-1 satellite gets go-ahead for launch

By Christiani Tumelap

KOUROU, French Guiana (JP): After a four-month delay, the Telkom-1 satellite owned by state telecommunications firm PT Telkom will be launched from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on August 4.

In addition to the delay, there was also a significant change to the launching plan.

The French space launch firm, Arianespace, said Telkom-1 would not be launched together with the Asiastar satellite of the United States' Worldspace on Arianespace's most advanced and powerful Ariane 504 rocket as initially planned.

Arianespace launch mission director Didier Casse said Telkom-1 would instead be launched alone on the Ariane 42P rocket, a rocket developed earlier with a lower payload capacity designed to carry small and medium-sized satellites.

He said the decision to switch to Ariane 4 was made because Asiastar was again delayed from launching due to technical problems in its solar panel system.

"The switch, however, will not in any way affect the quality of launch services as promised by Arianespace from the beginning," he announced during a media visit to the launch site in Kourou last week.

The original contract, signed in April 1997, required the launching of Telkom-1 satellite on an Ariane 504 rocket in April this year from the company's launch site at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou.

Arianespace's director of customer service, Baard Eilertsen, insisted Ariane 4's quality and capability was nothing to worry about.

He said the Ariane 4 generation rockets had proved their reliability with 44 consecutive successful launches since March 1995.

Ariane 4 rockets were recently named by the AIRCLAIMS international research organization as the most reliable launch vehicle, he said.

"Ariane 4 was ranked first in launch reliability with the highest score of 0.972 percent, followed by U.S. rockets Delta II with 0.965 percent, Atlas 0.937 percent and Proton 0.941 percent," he said.

Telkom's field office manager for the Telkom-1 satellite project in Kourou, Dodiet Hendrojono, said the company had no objection toward the switch to Ariane 4.

He said the switch was the best option since it would facilitate the Telkom-1 launching immediately without having to wait for a co-passenger.

"We are very much in favor of this plan because we can't tolerate any more delays in the launch schedule," he said, adding that Telkom-1 was actually ready for launch since January after its completion of manufacturing by the American company Lockheed Martin.

"Besides, Arianespace will face a penalty if Telkom-1 was launched after August this year," he said.

Dodiet added the switch in launch vehicle from Ariane 5 to Ariane 4 would not affect the payload in the contract between Telkom and Arianespace.

"The contract originally requires either the Ariane 5 or Ariane 4 rocket for launching. Ariane 5 was chosen at the time because of its immediate availability," he said.

Alexandre Mademba-Sy, an Arianespace engineer, said at the launch operations division that Ariane 5 was technically more sophisticated than Ariane 4.

"Ariane 5 is originally more simple and reliable. It is also more powerful in that it can send a bigger satellite higher into orbit," he said.

Ariane 5 has a payload capacity into geostationary transfer orbit of 5.9 metric tons to 6.9 tons, while Ariane 4 has between 2.07 tons and 4.9 tons.

"The manufacturing and operational costs of Ariane 5 are also higher than Ariane 4. But it will be cheaper for customers to use Ariane 5 because they don't have to pay it all by themselves, but share it equally with co-passengers," he added.

Alexandre said either Ariane 5 or Ariane 4 would send Telkom-1 to the same designated spot in orbit with the same procedures despite technical differences.

Dodiet said Telkom-1 was expected to start commercial operations in September to cover countries in the Southeast Asian region, as well as northern Australia.

The Telkom-1 satellite project is worth about US$191.4 million, which consists of $84.8 million for the satellite's procurement from Lockheed Martin, $90.1 million for the launch contract with Arianespace, $15 million for an insurance package with local firm Jasindo and $1.6 million for consultancy services with Canadian firm Telesat.

The satellite, weighing 2,655 kilograms at liftoff and carrying 24 C Band transponders and 12 Extended C Band transponders, will be the third Indonesian satellite launched by Arianespace, after the Palapa C2 in May 1996 and Cakrawarta in November 1997.

The satellite is specially developed to replace another Telkom satellite currently in orbit, the Palapa-B2R, which is due to end service in mid-2001.

Telkom-1 will provide various telecommunications services, including multimedia and high-speed internet, satellite telephony network, backbone transmission and analog or digital broadcasts for 20 years.

Dodiet said Telkom-1 was originally designed to serve 15 years under the previous Ariane 504 bi-satellite launch arrangement.

But since Telkom-1 will be the only satellite to be carried on the Ariane 42P rocket, it can fill its fuel to the maximum level of 400,000 kilograms to extend its period of service.

"So you see, the switch from Ariane 540 to Ariane 42P was not a bad thing after all. It gives us an advantage, too," he said. (cst)