INDONESIAN SATELLITE APPLICATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

ABSTRACT The history of Indonesian satellite applications began with the launch of PALAPA satellite series. The successful launch of PALAPA satellites encouraged several private companies to have their own satellite for communication applications. Indonesia uses several remote sensing satellites, namely SPOT-1, JERS-1, Landsat-5 and 7, NOAA, GMS and FRS-1 and 2. The remote sensing data has wide range of applications in agriculture, forestry, geology and research. Since 1999, the Indonesian National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN) and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) have established Tracking, Telemetry and Command (TTC) station in Biak I, land (BIAK-I). BIAK-I serve as one of the important Down Range Stations for Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle inission. Installation of the second TTC station BIAK-II is currently in progress and will be finished in the end of 2005. BIAK-II will be one of the prime C-Band TTC Stations for GSAT in LEOP phase. With these two stations in Biak, LAPAN and 'SRO are ready to support any external agencies that require TTC support from this location. In the development of satellite technology, Indonesia has started by conducting the development of INASAF-1 and the LAPAN-TUBSAT program. The INASAT-1 is an in-house program and a cooperation project between LAPAN and related institutions in Indonesia. The LAPAN-TUBSAT is a video surveillance micro satellite that is being developed at the Technical University of Berlin Germany, by a team of Indonesian engineers. The satellite is planned to be launched as piggy back on October 2005 by a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle launcher from Sriharikota India, carrying a S-band data transmission system, a high-resolution video camera, a low-resolution video camera, and a short text store and forward messaging.Hlm. 1-