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Indonesia’s SATRIA-1 successfully launched into orbit
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A
historic moment for Indonesia happened all the way across the world at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the United States. The launch of the Republic of Indonesia Satellite (SATRIA)-1 was a success.
"Alhamdulillah, SATRIA-1 has successfully launched into space at 6:21 p.m. Florida time, United States, or exactly 5:21 Western Indonesia Time this morning," said Acting Communications and Information Minister Mahfud MD in Central Jakarta on Monday (19/06/2023).
Mahfud MD said the success was a step toward equalizing and advancing internet access at public service points in disadvantaged, frontier and remote (3T) regions across the archipelago. He explained that SATRIA-1 was Indonesia's first internet satellite to be launched with SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. The internet speed at each point of contact is predicted to reach 4 Mbps. This speed has increased from the initial calculation of 1 Mbps in 2018, when the project was initiated.
"The function of SATRIA-1 is to equalize internet access, especially for the purposes of education, health, public services, for the community, for the [Indonesian Military (TNI)], for the National Police in all regions of the country, especially in 3T regions," he said.
Moreover, acting main director of the Telecommunications and Information Accessibility Agency (BAKTI) of the Communications and Information Ministry, Arief Tri Hardiyanto, explained that the successful launch was only one of the steps to be taken, before SATRIA-1 occupied an orbit of 146°E above the sky of Papua. He added that the next approach was for the satellite to be monitored by Thales Alenia Space, a French company, to ensure all devices were functioning properly.
"Hopefully all the components of SATRIA-1 can work well with the solar cells and antennas and they can be controlled from the ground station," he said after witnessing the launch of SATRIA-1 at the Kennedy Space Center.
According to Arief, he expected the satellite to complete all the steps necessary in order to start its orbit by November of this year.
Meanwhile, the head of the HR research and development agency at the Communications and Information Ministry, Hary Budiarto, said the launch of the SATRIA-1 Satellite would be a milestone in Indonesia's history in accelerating digital transformation.
SATRIA-1 has been launched with the Falcon 9 rocket owned by the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX). This satellite is the government's first multifunctional satellite with the largest capacity in Asia. The government hopes that the operation of SATRIA-1 will be successful and can support the acceleration of national digital transformation.
