On behalf of
Stephane Israel, who
is on duty at the
CSG in French Guiana
for a launch
campaign, Jacques
Breton, Arianespace
Senior
Vice-President,
Sales & Customers,
signed a contract on
April 28th in
Jakarta with Sofyan
Basi, CEO of BRI,
for the launch of
the Indonesian
satellite BRIsat.
The contract signing
ceremony took place
in Jakarta, and was
witnessed by Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono,
President of
Indonesia, Tifatul
Sembiring,
Indonesian Minister
of Communications
and Informatics,
Dahlan Iskan,
Minister for State
Owned Enterprises,
and Corinne Breuzé,
French ambassador to
Indonesia.
The BRIsat satellite
will be orbited by
an Ariane 5 launcher
in 2016 from the
Guiana Space Center,
Europe's Spaceport
in Kourou, French
Guiana.
It will be the fifth
satellite to be
launched by
Arianespace for
Indonesian
operators.
BRIsat will be built
by Space
Systems/Loral, and
will weigh about
3,500 kg at launch.
Fitted with C and
Ku-band
transponders, it
will offer a design
life exceeding 15
years. From its
orbital position at
150.5° East, it will
deliver highly
reliable
communications
services to BRI's
11,000 bank branches
across the
Indonesian
archipelago.
"We chose
Arianespace after a
demanding
international
selection process,
and they are clearly
the best solution
for BRI," said
Sofyan Basi, head of
BRI. "We know that
we can count on the
professionalism of
the company's staff
and on the
reliability and
availability of the
Ariane 5 launch
vehicle to
successfully
complete this
project, which is so
important for us and
for Indonesia."
Jacques Breton,
Arianespace Senior
Vice-President,
Sales & Customers,
added, "We are very
proud of our
selection by BRI,
which has indeed
honored Arianespace
by entrusting us
with their first
satellite. Their
selection shows the
competitiveness of
our launch services
for satellites of
the 3 metric ton
class. This is our
fifth contract with
Indonesia, coming 15
years after the
launch of Palapa C2
in 1996, and also
further cements an
exceptional space
partnership between
Indonesia and
Europe."
