Indonesia’s answer to Nasa aims to launch home-grown rocket into orbit
- Space agency Lapan is a minnow, but it is planning to build the country’s first spaceport off the coast of Papua
- Indonesia has set an ambitious five-year timeline to achieve the orbital launch goal
With a 3,2,1 blast-off, the two-metre-long projectile belches a trail of fire and then soars a few hundred metres before crashing in a heap – earning a thumbs up from scientists who declared the test a success.
It’s a very long way from a Mission Control in Houston, but the Southeast Asian archipelago’s answer to Nasa has big hopes and is now planning to build its first spaceport on a tropical island off the coast of easternmost Papua.
“We’ve got a dream to put our own satellite-launching rocket 200 or 300 kilometres into space within five years,” said Lilis Mariani, head of the Rocket Technology Centre at the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space, known as Lapan.
Some experts question how realistic that timeline is, and officials acknowledge much will depend on whether Jakarta stumps up the necessary funds.
There is resurgent international interest in space travel and colonisation, with Nasa planning to send two astronauts to the moon by 2024, some 55 years after their last mission there. The Trump administration has pledged to increase funding for the project and is also making plans for travel to Mars.