The LAPAN-A2/LAPAN-ORARI satellite will be flown aboard a cargo aircraft to India and will then be launched into its orbit by an Indian rocket.
Bogor, West Java (ANTARA News) - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) inaugurated Indonesias first equatorial satellite LAPAN-A2/LAPAN-ORARI at the National Aviation and Space Institute (Lapan) technology center in Bogor, West Java, on Thursday.

"By saying bismillahirahim, we inaugurate this satellite," the president stated at the Lapan technology center at Rancabungur, Bogor, on Thursday.

President Jokowi remarked that he highly lauded and respected Lapans development team for its concrete research.

"There is a pressing need to conduct concrete research such as this," the president stated in the company of Research and Technology Minister M. Nasir, Lapans Chief Thomas Djamaludin, and West Java Deputy Governor Deddy Mizwar.

The LAPAN-A2/LAPAN-ORARI satellite will be flown aboard a cargo aircraft to India and will then be launched into its orbit by an Indian rocket.

Djamaludin stated that the LAPAN-A2 satellite was purely the work of Indonesian scientists and is the successor of LAPAN-A1 satellite, which was made in Germany.

"The LAPAN-A2 is intended to be used 80 percent for experimental purposes and 20 percent for operational purposes," the Lapan chief remarked.

Djamaludin emphasized that Lapan had since 2003 been developing the satellite by studying in Germany and then producing the LAPAN-A1 satellite.

Djamaludin explained that after returning from Germany, he applied the knowledge gained from the visit to the country to produce LAPAN-A2.

The LAPAN-A2 satellite will be orbiting near the equator, with an inclination of six degrees at an altitude of 630 kilometers from the earths surface.

Weighing 78 kilograms, this satellite will perform the mission of monitoring the earths surface and identifying ships and amateur radio communications (ORARI).

The micro satellite will orbit close to the equator and will pass over Indonesia 14 times per day. (*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2015