During the 24th Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF) held in Bengaluru, India, Indonesia’s space agency LAPAN agreed to cooperate with India’s space agency ISRO, and Japan’s space agency JAXA.
In conjunction with APRSAF, LAPAN and ISRO held their 4th Joint Committee Meeting, comprising two closed-door discussions.
The first discussion, which took place at ISRO’s Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) office, further discussed five pending agreements between Indonesia and India. These are – the transfer of ownership of the Telemetry, Tracking, and Command (TTC) station at Biak, the upgrading of TTC stations to improve Indo-ASEAN remote sensing capabilities, and the installation of mobile stations in Indonesia to support the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS).
The second discussion between ISRO and LAPAN was a more general one, discussing other possible areas of cooperation between the two, and was attended by the Head of LAPAN Thomas Djamaluddin.
APRSAF-24 also saw the signing of a cooperation agreement between LAPAN and JAXA, regarding the use of data acquired from Advanced Land Observing Satellite 2 (ALOS 2), a JAXA-owned remote sensing satellite. The agreement allows Indonesia to use standard products, as well as data from ALOS 2’s Scanning synthetic aperture radar (ScanSAR), for research and for development programmes.
LAPAN’s collaboration with ISRO and JAXA is now new; LAPAN has signed numerous MoUs with both space agencies, with its ground stations serving satellites and launches from both nations. There are also frequent technology transfers and knowledge exchanges between LAPAN and JAXA, while ISRO’s PSLV rocket has launched all of LAPAN’s indigenous microsatellites LAPAN A1, A2, and A3.
