Dateline Asia
The CAKRAWARTHA-1 Satellite System
by Mark Long
Portions of this
article first appeared in the
January/February 2000 issue of Cable and Satellite magazine
© copyright 2000 MLE INC. All Rights Reserved.
Cakrawartha-1 ("News Weapon" in Bahasa Indonesia) is an S-band (2.5~2.6 GHz) communications spacecraft designed to provide digital DTH services within Indonesia and surrounding countries. The main advantage of Cakrawartha-1's S-band platform is that S-band transmissions are not affected by the rain fade problems which plague Ku-band transmissions in high-rain-rate tropical environments such as Southeast Asia. Within Indonesia, the Indovision bouquets can be received by antennas ranging from 70 cm to 1 meter in diameter. An additional 200 million people in surrounding countries potentially can receive TV signals from this satellite using antennas from 1 to 2 meters in diameter. The signals are encrypted, however, which requires a compatible decoder and subscription authorization.
An Ariane 4 launch vehicle deployed Cakrawartha-1 to 107.7 degrees East Longitude in November of 1997. The spacecraft, which carries five active S-band transponders with 70-watt travelling wave tube amplifiers, is expected to have an operational lifetime of twelve years. The spacecraft design is based on technology developed for the commercial LIGHTSAT market developed by CTA International of the United States. The Launch weight of Indostar 1 was approximately 3,050 lbs, of which 400 lbs. consisted of precious stationskeeping propellant.
Cakrawartha-1 has been plagued by several disadvantages that inarguably have had a dramatic impact on operator Indovision's initial business plan. The name of the satellite itself was a gift of sorts from former Indonesian President Suharto, who subsequently was forced to shuffle off the national stage in disgrace. Following its successful launch, the Cakrawartha-1 spacecraft experience technical problems with its solar electricity generating system. These problems now limit the number of transponders that can be operated on the spacecraft, thereby curtailing the number of TV services which can be operated at any one time. The technical fault also may affect the overall mission lifetime of the satellite.
Cakrawartha-1 also is the only S-band satellite currently operating over Asia. Subscribers therefore must purchase a receiving system that cannot receive any of the other satellite TV services available in the region. Indovision initially used C-band capacity on a Palapa C satellite to deliver its bouquet of services to subscribers. Most of the dishes in place within Indonesia during the late 1990s were pointed at the Palapa C satellite, which gave Indovision a huge potential audience for its new digital DTH bouquet. The company's decision to move the Indovision bouquet to Cakrawartha-1 in 1998 was one of the major reasons that lead to the split between Indovision and its major programming supplier STAR TV, which perceived Indonesia's troubled economy at that time to be a hostle environment for rebuilding a potential subscriber base from scratch on the new Cakrawartha-1 S-band satellite platform. With the sudden depature of STAR TV, Indovision had to face the grim prospect of creating new TV programme alliances so that it could attract new subscribers as well as to hold on to existing customers.
Although all of these turmoils have inundated the company in a financial sea of red ink, Indovision has surprised the field by surviving the above-mentioned technical, economic and business snafus to enter the new millennium with an estimated base of about 20,000 subscribers. With a new democratically elected government and the sunny prospect of increased financial stability in Indonesia, Indovision may yet emerge like a phoenix from the funeral pyre that many industry pundits had previous predicted for them.
The Master Control Station for Cakrawartha-1 is in Jakarta, Indonesia with Feeder Links in Jakarta, Singapore and Malaysia. Additional Indostar satellites are planned for future launch to the following orbital locations:
- INDOSTAR-2: 118.9 East
- INDOSTAR-3 107.5 East
- INDOSTAR-4 119.1 East
The Indostar spacecraft are owned by PT. Media Citra Indostar, part of the INDOVISION Group of companies founded seven years ago by Mr. Peter Gontha to develop Direct Broadcast Television. The spacecraft design is based on technology developed for the commercial LIGHTSAT market developed by CTA International. The Launch weight of Indostar 1 was approximately 3,050 lbs, of which 400 lbs. consisted of propellant.
Last updated: 08/11/00