Today, June 18, SpaceX launched the SATRIA broadband satellite for Pasifik Satelit Nusantara (PSN) – a telecommunications service provider in Indonesia. The satellite is part of a $550 million Indonesian government project that is designed to provide internet service to rural regions across the country's 17,000 islands. A flight-proven Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 6:21 p.m. ET from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida to deploy the satellite into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). The PSA SATRIA mission is SpaceX’s 42nd launch of the year (including Starship flight test).
Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/NvRBKfsfWO
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 18, 2023
The Falcon 9 first-stage booster that propelled the PSA SATRIA satellite to orbit is identified as B1067-12. It previously launched 12 missions, including: SpaceX’s 22nd and 25th NASA Commercial Resupply missions (CRS-22/CRS-25) to the International Space Station (ISS), NASA’s Crew-3 and Crew-4 astronaut flights to ISS, Turkey’s Turksat 5B satellite, the Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13G mission, mPOWER-a payload, and four Starlink missions. Approximately eight minutes after liftoff, the booster was recovered a 12th time with a propulsive landing on the ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’ droneship situated around 630-kilometers downrange off the coast of Florida. To date, SpaceX has performed 240 orbital missions, landed orbital-class rockets 201 times, and reused recovered boosters 174 times. Reusability enables SpaceX to perform weekly cost-effective rocket flights. It is currently the only company in the world capable of reusing orbital-class rockets with high reliability.
Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship pic.twitter.com/gGNYVw3IdB
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 18, 2023
The PSA SATRIA satellite was released into GEO by Falcon 9’s upper-stage around half-an-hour after liftoff. It will take several months for the satellite to use its onboard thrusters to propel into its designated position at 146 degrees East longitude over the Asia-Pacific region. The internet-beaming satellite will be used by the Indonesian government to provide internet to around 50,000 hospitals, village offices, 94,000 schools, and public WiFi access points in rural communities where citizens will be able to access the internet wirelessly with their smart devices. SATRIA is designed to have a lifespan of 15 years and is built by Thales Alenia Space in Cannes, France.
Deployment of PSN SATRIA confirmed pic.twitter.com/mEUehzvfKc
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 18, 2023
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Featured Image Source: SpaceX
About the Author
Evelyn Janeidy Arevalo
Evelyn J. Arevalo joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover news as a Space Journalist and SpaceX Starbase Texas Correspondent. Evelyn is specialized in rocketry and space exploration. The main topics she covers are SpaceX and NASA.
