In a $540 million effort to connect rural parts of the archipelago to the internet, Indonesia and Elon Musk’s rocket business SpaceX launched the country’s largest telecommunication satellite from the United States on Monday.
Approximately two-thirds of Indonesia’s 280 million people already access the internet, but connectivity is limited in the Southeast Asian country’s remote, undeveloped eastern islands.
“Satellite technology will accelerate internet access to villages in areas that cannot be reached by fiber optics in the next 10 years,” said Mahfud MD, senior Indonesian minister, in a statement ahead of the launch.
Thales Alenia Space manufactured the 4.5-tonne Satellite of the Republic of Indonesia (SATRIA-1) and sent it into orbit from Florida using SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, which subsequently returned to an offshore site in a precision landing.
The satellite will be launched into orbit above Indonesia’s eastern Papua province. According to the Indonesian government, it has a throughput capacity of 150 terabytes per second and would provide internet connectivity to 50,000 public service stations.
