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Gizmodo: India to blast-off Indonesia’s first domestically-made satellite Lapan A2

HUMBAHAS -- India will launch Indonesia's first domestically-made multi-spectral remote sensing satellite Lapan A2/Orari on September 27 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, The Jakarta Post reported.

It is a successor to Lapan A1/Tubsat that was launched in India in 2007. This was made by the experts from National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (Lembaga Penerbangan dan Antariksa Nasional, Lapan) and Technical University Berlin (TUB) Germany.

Weighing 78 kilograms, Lapan A2/Orari carries an Automatic Identification System (AIS) to identify the ships in the waters of Indonesia and a video camera with a range three times wider than the Lapan-Tubsat. It will function as a tool to monitor land usage, ship movements, sea resources and fishing explorations.

Besides this, it is also equipped with an automatic packet reporting system on board to aid disaster mitigation by monitoring floods, changes in the sea level as well as movements of the population.

Lapan A2/Orari satellite will orbit the Earth along the equator with an altitude of 650 km and will travel at 7.5 km per second - enabling it to circle 14 times a day. (gizmodo)