PALAPA-D spacecraft
was designed and
manufactured by
Thales Alenia Space
France (TAS-F), the
Company appointed
by Indosat to become
partner for procuring,
manufacturing and
launching up to ’In Orbit Delivery’ of satellite to 113= East. By employing the powerful SpaceBus 4000B3 platform from TAS-F, PALAPA-D satellite has warranty to have least 15 years operating life lime and been designed to the bigger capacity and more powerful than PALAPA-C2. PALAPA-D is carrying 40 transponders consisting of 24 standard C-Band, 11 Extended C-Band and 5 Ku-Band, covering Indonesia, ASEAN, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Australia. At time of launch, PALAPA-D mass was 4100 kg with payload power of 6 kW. "The PALAPA-D satellite is one form of our commitment to provide the best continuing service to customers using satellite services. Similar to PALAPA-C2 satellite utilization, PALAPA-D satellite will also be utilized as backbone to support other Indosat services, such as Cellular, Fixed telephone, and Fixed data". The satellite services will be complementing and adding the value of the terrestrial network services, voice communication and data which have been Indosat business over the years. Apart from them, Indosat is also developing Data Services and Broadband Internet via Satellite which enabling remote areas to have an access to the communication. The customers such asTV and Radio broadcasters from local, national and international, other VSAT service providers, ISP (Internet Service Provider), Corporation as the Direct User of the services, and also Indosat Group members (Cellular, Fixed Telecommnication and sister companies) are benefitting of the services. (QNA) M A/OM