Following its trip across the United States via truck, the satellite was loaded onto the Arianespace ship, called the M.N. Toucan, at Port Canaveral, FL., which then sailed for Kourou at 10:00 pm EDT yesterday. Telkom-1 is scheduled to arrive in Kourou July 6 and will be readied for launch in the third quarter of this year on an Arianespace booster.

"We are proud to provide the Telkom-1 satellite that will bring telecommunications services where none exist and to augment existing capabilities with state-of-the-art space-based services," said Peter Kujawski, president of Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems, based in Sunnyvale, CA. "This method of delivering a satellite to the launch site via a ship demonstrates our willingness to take a very creative approach at every level in working with our customers to ensure they get the best value for their investment."

Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems built the satellite for PT Telkomunikasi (Telkom) of Indonesia to link the nation's thousands of different islands and archipelagos. The Telkom-1 satellite will replace the existing Palapa B2R satellite which will be retired later this year. Telkom selected the A2100 to meet the growing requirements for telecommunications services. The company projects the annual increase in Indonesia's demand for services will be approximately 1.5 million telephone line units per year.

"Satellite communications have proven very functional as the backbone of our national telecommunications network for the last two decades," said A.A. Nasution, president director of Telkom.

Telkom-1 will support a variety of telecommunication applications, including high-speed digital traffic compatible with Very Small Aperture Terminal applications, which allows very small satellite dishes to receive signals, eliminating the need for expensive, fixed-site satellite dishes. The satellite's payload was built at the Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems facilities in Newtown, PA., and is configured with 24 C-Band and 12 extended C-Band transponders.

The A2100 will provide Telkom greater capacity than its earlier satellites, as well as a longer design and maneuver life. The selection of Lockheed Martin to manufacture the Telkom-1 satellite was based on the company's reputation as a premier satellite producer and recognition of the benefits of the next-generation technology of the A2100.

Telkom-1 will be positioned at 108 degrees East longitude, providing coverage to all of Indonesia, and potentially to parts of Southeast Asia and northern Australia. The satellite is optimized to provide a 15-year life span, but may continue to provide service for several years beyond that.

In addition to the A2100 satellite, Lockheed Martin provides Telkom with launch support services, mission operation services, additional equipment to augment the existing ground station in Cibinong, Indonesia, and training of the Telkom-1 technical team.

Launcher - SpaceDaily Special Report

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Sol's Motion Around Milky Way Detected
Chicago - June 30, 1999 -
Our Solar System orbits the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, 26,000 light-years away, only once every 200 million years. Despite that tremendously long time span, astronomers using the National Science Foundation's (NSF) powerful Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio telescope have shown they can detect this orbital motion in less than a month!