Palapa D
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Palapa-D was an Indonesian geostationary communications satellite which was operated by Indosat Ooredoo. It was built by Thales Alenia Space, based on the Spacebus-4000B3 satellite bus, and carries 35 C-band and 5 Ku-band transponders. It was positioned in
geostationary orbit A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular geosynchronous orbit in altitud ...
at a longitude of 113° East, where it will replace the Palapa-C2 satellite. Indosat ordered Palapa-D from Thales Alenia Space on 2 July 2007. The satellite was built without using
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
components, and was therefore not restricted by U.S.
International Traffic in Arms Regulations International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) is a United States regulatory regime to restrict and control the export of defense and military related Military technology, technologies to safeguard National security of the United States, U.S. ...
(ITAR), which allowed the China Great Wall Industry Corporation to be selected as a launch service provider.


Launch

A Long March 3B launch vehicle, flying from Launch Area-2 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre was used to launch Palapa-D. A problem with the third stage of its carrier rocket left it in an incorrect orbit, which was subsequently corrected using the spacecraft's onboard propulsion system. After launch, Palapa-D was to have separated from its launch vehicle into a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO), however one of its two identical upper-stage engines failed to deliver the necessary thrust, resulting in it reaching a lower orbit than planned. The S400 apogee motor of the satellite was subsequently used in for raise it into geostationary orbit.


Recovery and operations

On 3 September 2009, the satellite's orbit was adjusted, placing it into a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). It reached
geostationary orbit A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular geosynchronous orbit in altitud ...
on 9 September 2009. It underwent on-orbit testing, and arrived at its orbital slot of 113° East in mid-September 2009. After completing its testing, it is now being used to provide communications to Asia and
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. Palapa-D was built with a design life of fifteen years, but due to the expenditure of fuel during maneuvers to correct its orbit, it is expected to have enough fuel for about ten years of operations, according to
Reynald Seznec Reynald Seznec (born May 11, 1953 in Laval, Mayenne, France) is a French engineer and businessman. He was the President and CEO of the Franco-Italian company Thales Alenia Space from 2008 to 2012, succeeding to Pascale Sourisse in the Cannes Mand ...
, President of Thales Alenia Space. Thales Alenia Space announced that the Palapa-D communications satellite is now positioned at its final location (113° East) and fully ready for operations for more than 10.5 years.
On 31 August 2020, Palapa-D was officially declared inadequate for operation after almost ran out of fuel for stationkeeping and all of its transponder services were officially moved to Telkom-4 (Merah Putih) and BRIsat satellites for broadcasting and data services respectively.


Replacement

Palapa-D was planned to be replaced by
Nusantara Dua Nusantara most commonly refers to: *Nusantara (archipelago), an Old Javanese term which initially referred to the conquered territories of the Majapahit empire, corresponding to present-day Indonesia * Nusantara (planned city), the future capital c ...
(Palapa-N1) satellite; the launch of Nusantara Dua on 9 April 2020 by Chinese Long March 3B/E launch vehicle was a failure, resulting in the loss of the satellite. A replacement satellite (Nusantara-2R or Palapa-N1R) to be built by the same manufacturer ( China Academy of Space Technology/CAST) is being considered, albeit with possible different specifications with the lost one. However, on 28 October 2021, Telkomsat contract awarded the replacement satellite (working designation HTS-113BT) to Thales Alenia Space instead of CAST using legendary Spacebus-4000B2 platform, with planned launch for 2024. The HTS-113BT is expected to have similar specifications with the lost one.


See also

*
2009 in spaceflight Several significant events in spaceflight occurred in 2009, including Iran conducting its first indigenous orbital launch, the first Swiss satellite being launched and New Zealand launching its first sounding rocket. The H-IIB and Naro-1 rock ...
* List of Spacebus satellites


References

{{Orbital launches in 2009 Communications in Indonesia Spacecraft launched in 2009 Satellites of Indonesia Partial satellite launch failures Communications satellites in geostationary orbit Satellites using the Spacebus bus 2009 in Indonesia Palapa satellites