Indonesia’s Telkom-1 “breaking up” in orbit
August 31, 2017
By Chris Forrester
PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia says it is going to “de-orbit” its Telkom-1 satellite, which has suffered battery/power anomalies in orbit.
The Lockheed Martin-built satellite was well over its design life of 15 years having been launched in 1999, and has been working – until last week – for 18 years.
However, there are well-founded reports that Telkom-1 is actually breaking up whilst in orbit.
According to PT Telkom, its last check on the satellite indicated that it could have been operational until 2019. There is reportedly enough fuel on board to successfully place the satellite into a higher than usual ‘graveyard’ orbit.
PT Telekom is currently transferring clients to its alternate Telkom 2 and Telkom 3S satellites.