Indonesia to launch satellite from India

Jakarta, Sep 3  Indonesia is set to launch a locally made satellite from India on September 27, a media report said on Thursday.

The LAPAN A2/Orari satellite was produced entirely in Indonesia by the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN) in 2012. It is a successor to LAPAN A1/Tubsat, which was launched in India in 2007, The Jakarta Post reported.

“Today, I’m officially sending off the LAPAN A2/Orari satellite,” said President Joko Widodo during the launch ceremony on Thursday.

The satellite will be shipped to India on Friday. It will launched at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

LAPAN A2/Orari will function as a tool to monitor land usage, ship movements, sea resources and fishing explorations. 

It is also equipped with an automatic packet reporting system on board to aid disaster mitigation by monitoring floods, changes in the sea level as well as movements of the population.

The satellite will orbit the earth along the equator with an altitude of 650 km and will travel at 7.5 km per second - enabling it to circle 14 times a day.