Planning and Development of Indonesia’s Domestic Communication Satellite System Palapa

This article describes the early history of the Indonesia’s Domestic Communication Satellite System Palapa, including the reasons proposed by the government for such an expensive policy and the process of the satellite purchase. Indonesia is the first developing countries that had its own satellite system, which was launched in August 16, 1976. The article discusses two most important reasons for having the satellite system: (1). The satellite as the mean for the unification of the country, and (2) the satellite for the supporting infrastructure for the national development. Some technical aspects of Palapa satellite are also discussed in this article.