Telkom soon to open bid for new satellite launch
JAKARTA (JP): State-owned telecommunications company PT Telkom will open the bidding this year for the manufacture and launch of the Telkom-2 satellite.
Telkom director for planning and technology Kristiono said on Friday a contract to build and launch the satellite needed to be signed by the end of this year at the latest so there would be no interruptions to Indonesia's telecommunications system.
"It takes between 12 and 18 months to build the satellite, so the launch is expected to be done in the first quarter of 2003," he told The Jakarta Post.
Kristiono said the tender would be participated in by international satellite manufacturers and launchers such as France's Arianespace and the United States' Boeing.
The new satellite will replace the older Palapa-B4, which will become obsolete in 2003.
Palapa-B4 satellite is Telkom's second generation Palapa satellite made by the United States' Hughes Communication International.
It was launched into geostationary orbit on May 14, 1992, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, using a Delta 7925 rocket.
The first telecommunications satellite the country sent into orbit was the Palapa-A1 in 1976. This was followed by the Palapa- A2 in 1977.
Both satellites were manufactured by Hughes and deployed using Delta rockets.
The Palapa-A satellites were replaced by satellites with a higher capacity and wider range, the Palapa-B series, in 1983.
The Palapa-B1 was launched in June 1983 from the Columbia space shuttle, followed by the Palapa-B2 in 1984, which failed to reach geostationary orbit.
The Palapa-B2 was replaced by the Palapa-B2P in 1987, launched using a Thor-Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral.
The Palapa-B2 was refurbished and renamed the Palapa-B2R (Palapa-B2 Refurbished) and relaunched into orbit in 1990 with an Atlas rocket. It replaced the Palapa-B1 satellite.
In August 1999 Telkom launched the Telkom-1 satellite to replace the Palapa-B2R which had reached the end of its operational lifetime. The satellite was built by the United States' Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems.
It was deployed into geostationary orbit by Arianespace, making it the first Telkom satellite and the third Indonesian satellite to be deployed by the French company.
The other two launched by Arianespace from its spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, were the Palapa-C2 for PT Satelindo and PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara on May 15, 1996, and the Cakrawarta-1 for PT Media Citra Indostar in November 1997.
Talks on the manufacture and launch of Telkom-2 began several years ago, but were suspended after the country plunged into an economic crisis in late 1997.
Indonesia's geography, which consists of many thousands of islands, makes it ideal for satellite telecommunications.
However, cheaper alternatives are currently being explored both by Telkom and the Indonesian Satellite Association (ASSI) to replace the satellite telecommunications systems.
ASSI recently recommended the implementation of a high- altitude platform system (HAPS) in the form of a helium-filled blimp which hovers at a height of between five and 20 kilometers, and could cover an area of 38,000 square kilometers.
The chairman of the association's national HAPS work-group, Krishnahadi S. Pribadi, said earlier that the cost to implement the HAPS system was US$30 million a blimp compared to the $100 million price tag for a satellite.
The HAPS system is also cheaper to maintain as the blimps are easier to bring back to earth for repairs or upgrades than the satellites, he said.
"The HAPS system is currently one of the alternatives being studied by Telkom, but it's operational capabilities have not been proven," Kristiono said, adding that the limited coverage of the HAPS system and safety issues were two of the main problems in its implementation. (tnt)