TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Telkom’s Merah Putih satellite has been successfully launched on Tuesday`s early morning from Cape Canaveral Air Force, Orlando, Florida, the United States.
“The Merah Putih satellite has successfully orbited. It was marked by the satellite separation from the stage-2 engine on the 32nd minute,” said Abdus Somad Arief Director Wholesale & International Service PT Telkom Indonesia in his Facebook status on Tuesday, August 7 12:57 Western Indonesia Time or 01:57 local time.
The Merah Putih satellite launched to space inside the SpaceX Falcon 9 launcher. The Falcon 9’s payload, according to NASA spaceflight, is equipped with sixty C-band transponders, the 5,800-kilogram (12,786 pounds) spacecraft will provide communications services to Indonesia and India.
“The mission is to increase the capacity of Telkom’s existing 73 transponders in Telkom 2 and Telkom 3S to a total of 133 transponders. The additional 60 transponders will be provided by the Merah Putih satellite,” said Denny Setiawan, Communication and Informatics Ministry’s Director of Resource Management of the Directorate General of Resources and Post and Informatics Equipments on Monday night.
The Merah Putih satellite was constructed by Space Systems/Loral, based around the SSL-1300 platform in Palo Alto, California. The satellite is planned to be launched to a geostationary orbit taking over Telkom 1’s previous slot at 108 East Longitude and is expected to provide at least fifteen-year of service.
TEMPO.CO