Telkom soon to open bid for new satellite launch

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)