"It is hoped the project will be completed in 2005 and the satellite will be launched using a rocket belonging to India," the head of the Indonesian State Space Institut, Mahdi Kartasasmita, said according to the Antara news service.

Kartasasmita said the satellite, to be developed in cooperation with the University of Berlin, would weigh 45 kilograms (100 pounds) and be put at an orbit some 800 kilometers (500 miles) from the surface of the Earth.

He said the satellite would cost around one million dollars to build.

The institute would send 12 of its technicians to Germany early next year to take part in the satellite making process, he added.

SPACE.WIRE