SpaceX eyes Tuesday afternoon for Indonesian Telkomsat satellite launch from Cape Canaveral

This artist's rendering shows a Telkomsat HTS 113BT satellite orbiting Earth.

THALES ALENIA SPACE

Tuesday afternoon, SpaceX aims to launch a telecommunications satellite for Telkomsat, which touts itself as Indonesia's leading satellite service provider, into low-Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Though SpaceX has yet to publicly announce this mission, a Federal Aviation Administration operations plan advisory shows the 2½-hour Telkomsat HTS 113BT launch window will open at 3:11 p.m. EST and last until 5:44 p.m.

The Falcon 9 rocket will take flight in an easterly trajectory from Launch Complex 40, a Coast Guard navigational advisory shows.

In October 2021, Thales Alenia Space announced it had signed a contract with Telkomsat to build the HTS 113BT satellite.

"HTS 113BT will provide more than 32 (gigabit per second) capacity over Indonesia. The satellite will weigh about 4 metric tons at launch and will be delivered early 2024 for a 15-year expected lifetime," an October 2021 Thales Alenia Space press release said.

Fast-forward to Jan. 11. Thales Alenia Space officials tweeted a video showing crews loading the satellite from a clean room in Cannes, France, into a protective shipping container. The container was trucked to the Port of Nice via convoy and loaded onto a cargo ship bound for Florida.

Then on Jan. 31, Port Canaveral officials tweeted a video showing crews unloading the satellite from the vessel onto a tractor trailer for transport to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The National Weather Service forecast for Tuesday calls for sunny skies, a high near 66, and north-northwest wind of 10 to 15 mph — punctuated by gusts as high as 20 mph — at the Space Force base.

Quelle: Florida Today

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Update: 21.02.2024

TELKOMSAT MERAH PUTIH 2 MISSION

On Tuesday, February 20 at 3:11 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched the Telkomsat Merah Putih 2 mission to geosynchronous transfer orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

This was the 17th launch of the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched CRS-22, Crew-3, Turksat 5B, Crew-4, CRS-25, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13G, mPOWER-a, PSN SATRIA, and eight Starlink missions.