Indonesia’s Satria communications satellite was officially licensed – and obliged – to be in orbit and on station by March 2023. That has now been extended.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is tough on its requirements for launch dates to be met, and satellites ‘brought into use’. The rules were designed to eliminate what the ITU called ‘paper satellites’, and where operators went through the process of registering and obtaining frequency permissions for satellites that at the end of the day were never launched. Meanwhile, the operator gained some small advantage over its rivals by delaying the use of the orbital slot and its attendant frequencies.

The ITU has given permission to Indonesia for a launch – and occupation of the orbital position – from April 1st 2023 to October 2023.

“This extension does not change the satellite launch and commercial operational date, which is still set for the fourth quarter of 2023,” according to Indonesia’s minister responsible, Johnny G. Plate.

Satria, with an estimated investment of $550 million, is to be the country’s biggest satellite with a throughput capacity of 150 billion bits per second (Gbps).

Satria, which means ‘Warrior’, is being built by Thales Alenia Space for Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (Kominfo). The end client is for the consortium led by PSN which has formed Satelit Nusantara Tiga (SNT) to be operating company to carry on the project. The shareholders of SNT are PSN, PT Pintar Nusantara Sejahtera (Pintar), PT Nusantara Satelit Sejahtera, and PT Dian Semesta Sentosa (subsidiary of PT Dian Swastatika Sentosa Tbk). PSN and Pintar are the majority shareholders of SNT and both will maintain majority ownership in the operating company throughout the project lifetime.

Other posts by Chris Forrester:

1. Virgin Galactic in stock split
2. Thuraya-3 suffers major problem
3. AST SpaceMobile hit by Class Action
4. Optimism under threat at SES
5. Rivada visits Terran Orbital’s manufacturing HQ
6. Avanti wins spectrum debt obligation case
7. SpaceX breaks records for re-use launchers
8. IRIS2 already in trouble?
9. Intelsat contemplates next steps

Categories: Blogs, Inside Satellite, Satellite

Tags: ITU, Thales