Indonesia's SATRIA Communications Satellite Successfully Launched

The SATRIA communications satellite was successfully launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 vehicle from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

SATRIA (SAteliT Republik IndonesiA) is a satellite designed to bridge the digital divide in Indonesia. Offering throughput of 150 Gbps, it will deliver high-speed Internet to the thousands of islands in the Indonesian archipelago, providing connectivity across thousands of zones for schools, hospitals, and public buildings, as well as regional government facilities not already connected by existing terrestrial or satellite systems.

Thales Alenia Space, the joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), was chosen to build the satellite by the Satelit Nusantara Tiga (SNT) consortium on behalf of the Indonesian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (Kominfo). This very-high-throughput satellite (VHTS) is based on Thales Alenia Space’s all-electric Spacebus NEO platform and features a fifth-generation digital processor. The company also supplied two satellite control centers — main and backup — and the mission ground segment for the all-digital payload. In addition, Thales Alenia Space has set up a complete training program for SNT engineers, some of whom have joined the project team at the company’s facilities in Cannes and Toulouse for the duration of the program.

SATRIA will be the first VHTS communications satellite in Indonesia, and also the most powerful in the South-East Asia region. With a launch mass of 4,6 tons, it will operate in Ka band and be positioned in orbit at 146° E for a design life of 15 years.

“I am delighted to see SATRIA successfully launched. This mission will deploy very-high-throughput Internet across Indonesia and help to develop the nation’s digital infrastructures,” said Marc-Henri Serre, Thales Alenia Space Executive Vice President, Telecommunications. “After the construction of the Palapa-D and Telkom-3S satellites, the Telkom 3 payload, and the future Telkom 113 satellite, SATRIA confirms our successful partnership with Indonesian operators.”