Palapa D

Palapa-D [Thales Alenia Space]

PT Indosat Tbk appointed in July 2007 Thales Alenia Space to build and launch the Palapa-D satellite. Palapa-D, which was launched during second half 2009, replaced the aging Palapa-C2 satellite at 113º East.

Based on Thales Alenia Space Spacebus-4000B3 platform, Palapa-D satellite has a larger capacity compared to Palapa-C2 satellite of which it has 24 standard C-band, 11 extended C-Band and 5 Ku-band transponders, with coverage of Indonesia, ASEAN countries, Asian countries, Middle East and Australia. Palapa-D satellite will have a launch mass of 4.1 tons, a payload power of 6 kW and service life time of 15 years.

Indosat appointed Thales Alenia Space to build and launch Palapa-D satellite through a tender process in which Indosat invited several potential experienced manufacturers from domestic and international. Indosat based the appointment of Thales Alenia Space on its capability to meet Indosat's requirements and its ability to provide competitive and comprehensive communications solutions. Indosat and Thales Alenia Space have jointly selected the Long March 3B as the launch vehicle for the Palapa-D satellite.

The cost of building and launching Palapa-D project is between US$200 - US$300 million. Indosat financed this Palapa-D satellite with company's internal and external resources.

The satellite was launched on 31 August 2009, but the launch vehicle undeperformed and left the satellite in a too low transfer orbit. Palapa D was able to maneuvere itself into the planned GEO, but with a reduced lifetime. On 31 August 2020, Palapa-D was officially declared inadequate for operation after it almost ran out of fuel for stationkeeping and all of its transponder services were moved to the Telkom 4 (Merah Putih) and BRIsat satellites for broadcasting and data services respectively. The Chinese built replacement Palapa N1 was lost in a launch failure.