Minister wants Telkom to explain satellite loss

"I am not a satellite expert so I want to know the chronology of its loss."

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - State Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan will soon summon publicly listed PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) board of directors to explain the loss of the Telkom-3 satellite.

The Telkom-3 satellite of Indonesian telecommunication services company Telekomunikasi Indonesia was reported to have been lost, hours after it was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan early on Tuesday.

"I have actually been informed about the loss of the satellite, and I can call PT Telekom board of directors about the incident but I have to summon them to explain to me in detail how the satellite got lost," Dahlan said here on Wednesday.

The minister acknowledged that he knew nothing about satellite industry from its development to its launch.

"I am not a satellite expert so I want to know the chronology of its loss," Dahlan noted.

The Telkom-3 satellite was carried by a Russian-made Proton-M rocket and was scheduled to reach the Briz-M upper stage on Tuesday at 11.44 am.

But Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said that the satellite was still undetected and that it had run into some trouble at the Briz-M stage during its orbiting journey.

However, Dahlan said the failure to orbit the Telkom-3 satellite would not disturb the service and performance of PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia.

Editor: Priyambodo RH
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