"We could not yet decide on a new partner, but we are still looking for the best. We have to launch a new satellite as we need one ," Indra Utoyo, the vice president of the state company, said.Jakarta (ANTARA News) - PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk said it is seeking new partner to launch a new satellite to replace Telkom-3 lost in space on launching failure by Russian rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, last month.
"We could not yet decide on a new partner, but we are still looking for the best. We have to launch a new satellite as we need one ," Indra Utoyo, the vice president of the state company, said here on Wednesday.
Indra said Telkom regretted the loss despite long preparations made before the launch, adding the US$200 million satellite was to be operational in December.
He said Telkom still keeps communications with Russia but no information yet about progress made in locating the satellite.
He said the loss would not cause problem immediately in its telecommunications service as Telkom still has one in orbit.
Telkom, however, is looking for transponders to replace ones lost with the missing satellite.
Telkom-3, which was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome , Kazakhstan, on August 7, was later declared missing after failing to reach its orbit.
The launch of Telkom-3 were delayed several times before. Originally it was to be launched in mid 2011 and the launch was rescheduled for June 2012 but delayed again until it ended in failure in August.
Telkom-3 was built with 42 transponders and up to 45 percent of the transponders were to be leased out and the rest to be used by the Telkom Group.
It was the first time Telkom cooperated with Russia to launch satellite . Its Telkom-2 was launched by French ArianeSpace, in November 2005 at Kouroue, Guyana.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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