Satelit Nusantara Tiga (Satria), an Indonesian satellite provider and Thales Alenia Space, a French-Italian aerospace manufacturer, have signed a Preliminary Work Agreement to prepare and launch a broadband telecommunication satellite, called the Satellite of the Republic of Indonesia or SATRIA. The project is estimated to cost USD 550 million and will become Indonesia’s largest telecommunications satellite to date.
Thales Alenia Space is the prime contractor for this program and initially signed on July 2019 for a consortium led by the domestic satellite operator Pasifik Satelit Nusantara (PSN) on behalf of Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (Kominfo).
Thales Alenia Space will supply the High Througput Satellite (HTS) fitted with a fifth-generation digital processor, two satellite control centers, telecommand and telemetry stations, and the ground mission segment linked to a fully processed payload. Indonesian engineers will also receive intensive training.
The full Ka-band SATRIA satellite will improve the country’s digital infrastructure by carrying more than 150 gigabits per second. Expected to be operational by 2023, the satellite will connect about 150,000 public facilities, including schools, regional government offices and healthcare facilities that are currently not supported by terrestrial infrastructure.
According to the Ministry of Communications and Information, Indonesia is actively seeking foreign investment in the ICT sector as the country is expected to require a satellite capacity of 900 Gbps by 2030.
(Sources: Thales; Sat News; The Jakarta Post)
