Indonesia launches ‘most powerful’ satellite with SpaceX to boost high-speed internet coverage

The US$540 million satellite, which was launched from Florida in the US, aims to offer Indonesia connection speeds of 150 gigabytes per second

Jakarta hopes it will help connect 90,000 schools, and 40,000 hospitals and government buildings, to the internet when it comes online next year

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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Indonesia’s Satria-1 satellite blasts off from Cape Canaveral in Florida in this screengrab from a video shared on social media by Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Photo: Instagram/@jokowi

Published: 1:01pm, 20 Jun 2023Updated: 1:07pm, 20 Jun 2023

Elon Musk’s company SpaceX and Indonesia have launched a satellite from the United States aimed at bringing high-speed internet to remote areas across the sprawling archipelago of more than 17,000 islands.

Over one-third of Indonesia’s population do not have access to the web, especially in far-flung areas of the world’s fourth most populous country.

The European-built Satria-1 took off early on Monday, Indonesian time, from a Florida launch station, deployed by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

“SpaceX launched the PSN Satria mission to a geosynchronous transfer orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida,” the firm wrote on its website.

The satellite – built by French defence electronics company Thales – cost US$540 million and Jakarta hopes it will connect 90,000 schools, as well as 40,000 hospitals and government buildings, to the internet.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo called it the country’s “first government-owned multi-function satellite with the biggest capacity in Asia” in an Instagram post on Monday.

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