Photo: Palapa D1 rises from the Xichang Credit: Spacelaunchreport.com

Palapa D1, owned by Indonesian telco Indosat, suffered a third stage launcher mishap on August 31 during the launch sequence from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Southwest China’s Sichuan province. Consequently the satellite was placed in an unusable orbit.

Failure occurred 20 minutes after liftoff as the third stage was scheduled to ignite for the second burn of the launch. The 13 metre long third stage, powered by two YF-75 liquid hydrogen and oxygen engines capable of generating 35,000 pounds of thrust used on most long March launchers has never failed before.

Engineers at Thales Alenia Space, the designers and manufacturers of the satellite devised a plan though the conservative use of on-board propellant and succeeded in placing the satellite in a geo-transfer orbit on September 3, sufficient for the satellite to subsequently be lifted into geostationary orbit. Thales Alenia’s engineers then remotely reconfigured the  satellite’s on-board computers to gently push Palapa-D into its correct orbit.

The negative aspect of this unexpected maneuvering is that undoubtedly the use of the satellite’s on-board propellant is bound to impact the satellite’s expected 15-year life – and this is bound to trigger an insurance claim. It is too soon to predict the impact on the operational lifetime of the satellite, but it is likely to be measured in years, rather than months, of in-orbit service. Three perigee boost maneuvers were required to modify the injection orbit after spacecraft separation.

The Palapa-D contract was agreed on a ‘build and launch’ basis, so Thales Alenia own – and are responsible for – the satellite until it safely reaches its correct orbit at 113 deg East, which it did on September 10. The satellite is intended to replace Palapa-C2 that has been in position since 1996 and is due for retirement in 2011.

Palapa D1 was built without using American components, and was not restricted by the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations, which allowed the China Great Wall Industry Corporation to be selected as the launch service provider. Latest estimates by Thales Alenia Space indicate the satellite should have sufficient fuel for a ten year service life.