Garuda 1 was an Indonesian

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth ...

which is operated by

ACeS ACeS (PT Asia Cellular Satellite) was a regional satellite telecommunications company based in Jakarta, Indonesia. It offered GSM-like satellite telephony services to Asian market. The coverage area included Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philip ...

. It was constructed by

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

and is based on the A2100AXX

satellite bus A satellite bus (or spacecraft bus) is the main body and structural component of a satellite or spacecraft, in which the payload and all scientific instruments are held. Bus-derived satellites are opposed to specially produced satellites. Bus- ...

. It has two very large antennas, each measuring 12 meter in diameter. Launch occurred on 12 February 2000, at 09:10:54 GMT. The launch was contracted by ILS, and used a

Proton-K The Proton-K, also designated Proton 8K82K after its GRAU index or SL-12 after its model number, 8K82K, was a Russian, previously Soviet, carrier rocket derived from the earlier Proton. It was built by Khrunichev, and launched from sites 81 an ...

/ DM3 carrier rocket flying from Site 81/23 at the

Baikonur Cosmodrome ''Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy'' rus, Космодром Байконур''Kosmodrom Baykonur'' , image = Baikonur Cosmodrome Soyuz launch pad.jpg , caption = The Baikonur Cosmodrome's "Gagarin's Start" Soyuz ...

History

At the time of its launch, it was the heaviest commercial payload to be launched by a

Proton A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' elementary charge. Its mass is slightly less than that of a neutron and 1,836 times the mass of an electron (the proton–electron mass ...

. During its launch, the Block DM3 upper stage made three burns instead of the usual two. This was the first time that the Block DM had used a three-burn ascent profile. Following its launch and on-orbit testing, it was placed 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 altitu ...

at 123° East, from where it provides communications services to

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

. It is equipped with 88 transponders, allowing it to cover the entire continent with 140

spot beam A spot beam, in telecommunications parlance, is a satellite signal that is specially concentrated in power (i.e. sent by a high-gain antenna) so that it will cover only a limited geographic area on Earth. Spot beams are used so that only Earth stati ...

s. The satellite is controlled by

Satellite Control Facility situated in

Batam Batam is the largest city in the province of Riau Islands, Indonesia. The city administrative area covers three main islands of Batam, Rempang, and Galang (collectively called Barelang), as well as several small islands. Batam Island is the c ...

island,

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...

. The Garuda 1 was originally to be supplemented by a second satellite (Garuda 2), but the plan never materialized. An anomaly with some of the antennae was discovered in September 2000, and significantly reduced the satellite's communications capacity. A few years later more anomalies were found, further reducing its capacity by more than 50%. Several curative actions have been taken by

engineers to salvage the satellite and it is expected to survive another 5–7 years. In mid-2015, the satellite experienced another malfunction, making it in unusable state. After the malfunction, the satellite was finally retired and was moved into a graveyard orbit.

References

* * * * * * * Communications satellites Communications in Indonesia Satellites of Indonesia Communications satellites in geostationary orbit Spacecraft launched in 2000 Satellites using the A2100 bus 2000 in Indonesia {{communications-satellite-stub