Garuda 1 was an Indonesian

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a Transponder (satellite communications), transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a Rad ...

which is operated by ACeS. It was constructed by

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...

and is based on the A2100AXX satellite bus. It has two very large antennas, each measuring 12 meter in diameter. Launch occurred on 12 February 2000, at 09:10:54 GMT. The launch was contracted by ILS, and used a Proton-K/ DM3 carrier rocket flying from Site 81/23 at the

Baikonur Cosmodrome The Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport operated by Russia within Kazakhstan. Located in the Kazakh city of Baikonur, it is the largest operational space launch facility in terms of area. All Russian Human spaceflight, crewed spaceflights are l ...

History

At the time of its launch, it was the heaviest commercial payload to be launched by a

Proton A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , Hydron (chemistry), H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' (elementary charge). Its mass is slightly less than the mass of a neutron and approximately times the mass of an e ...

. During its launch, the Block DM3 upper stage made three burns instead of the usual two. This was the first time that the Block DM had used a three-burn ascent profile. Following its launch and on-orbit testing, it was placed in

geostationary orbit A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular orbit, circular geosynchronous or ...

at 123° East, from where it provides communications services to

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

. It is equipped with 88 transponders, allowing it to cover the entire continent with 140 spot beams. The satellite is controlled by ACeS Satellite Control Facility situated in Batam island,

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. The Garuda 1 was originally to be supplemented by a second satellite (Garuda 2), but the plan never materialized. An anomaly with some of the antennae was discovered in September 2000, and significantly reduced the satellite's communications capacity. A few years later more anomalies were found, further reducing its capacity by more than 50%. Several curative actions have been taken by ACeS engineers to salvage the satellite and it is expected to survive another 5–7 years. In mid-2015, the satellite experienced another malfunction, making it in unusable state. After the malfunction, the satellite was finally retired and was moved into a graveyard orbit.

References

* * * * * * * Communications satellites Communications in Indonesia Satellites of Indonesia Communications satellites in geostationary orbit Spacecraft launched in 2000 Satellites using the A2100 bus 2000 establishments in Indonesia {{communications-satellite-stub