National Institute of Aeronautics and Space

National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (/LAPAN) is the Indonesian government space agency. It was established on November 27, 1964 by former Indonesian president Suharto after one year's existence of an informal space agency organization. LAPAN is responsible for long-term civilian and military aerospace research. For over two decades, it has managed satellites, mainly telecommunication satellites, including the Palapa project satellites, which were built by Hughes (now Boeing Satellite Systems) and launched from the US on Delta rockets or from French Guiana using Ariane 4 and Ariane 5 rockets.

History

On May 31, 1962, Indonesia commenced aeronautics exploration when the Aeronautics Committee was established by the Indonesian Prime Minister, Juanda, who was also the head of Indonesian Aeronautics. The secretary of Indonesian Aeronautics, RJ Salatun, was also involved in the establishment.

On September 22, 1962, the Initial Scientific and Military Rocket Project (known in Indonesia as Proyek Roket Ilmiah dan Militer Awal or "PRIMA") was formed as an affiliation of AURI (Indonesian Air Force) and ITB (Bandung Institute of Technology). The outcome of the project was the launching of two "Kartika"("star") series rockets and their telemetric ordnances.

After two informal projects, which had no national contribution, the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN) was established in 1963 by Presidential Decree 236.

Programmes

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