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Bloomberg

Reuters

Indonesia has invited SpaceX to assess the possibility of setting up a rocket launch site in the country, according to a ministry statement.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo discussed the idea with SpaceX founder Elon Musk during a phone call on Friday about investment opportunities, the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime and Investment Affairs said.
Musk intends to send a team to Indonesia in January to study partnership plans, it said.
Indonesia has already had other talks with the entrepreneur, with Tesla looking into the possibility of building a plant in Central Java, Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita said in October.
Indonesia’s answer to Nasa aims to launch home-grown rocket into orbit
Indonesia, home to some of the world’s largest deposits of copper, nickel and tin, is touting its abundance of the commodities to lure billions of dollars in investment.
The country is keen to develop a full supply chain for nickel at home, especially for extracting battery chemicals, making batteries and eventually building EVs.
Last month, Jokowi said his administration had “a great plan to make Indonesia the biggest producer of lithium batteries”.
Luhut Pandjaitan, the coordinating minister for maritime and investment, told Reuters last month that there was “a really good chance” that companies would want to invest in Indonesian nickel processing to cut costs.
Musk has said he is planning to offer a “giant contract for a long period of time” as long as the nickel is mined “efficiently and in an environmentally sensitive way”.


This week, SpaceX’s first high-altitude test flight of its next-generation Starship spacecraft ended in a massive fireball in South Texas after a mission that otherwise went smoothly until the landing.
The nearly seven-minute flight on Wednesday was stable until the landing attempt when the Starship failed to slow down enough, video images provided by SpaceX showed. The impact of the unoccupied rocket then engulfed the landing site in flames.
The Starship flight was seen as a major success within the company given that the vehicle remained aerodynamically stable during its ascent, a “belly flop” to orient for landing and its precision approach to the landing pad.
Three of the company’s new Raptor engines were fired for several minutes, offering SpaceX additional data.

“Congrats SpaceX team hell yeah!!” Musk tweeted shortly after the flight. He said pressure in a fuel tank was low on descent and caused the landing velocity to be too high.
Musk had predicted only about a one-third chance of success for the initial flight of SN8, Space Exploration Technologies’ futuristic design prototype that was sent on the programme’s first major flight. The company has made steady progress over the past year on Starship prototypes at its factory in Boca Chica, Texas.
The Starship was attempting to reach about 41,000 feet in the test, which was also the first flight for SpaceX’s newest Raptor engine. SpaceX also collected data on how the vehicle could flip and orient for a powered landing similar to the process for the company’s workhorse Falcon 9 system. It also tested multiple control flaps during the flight.

The stainless steel Starship is designed to be a versatile, fully reusable craft that can carry 100 metric tons for deep space missions to the moon and Mars but also serve as a hypersonic, point-to-point vehicle to reduce travel times across Earth.
Excluding a heavy booster that creates a two-stage system, Starship is 160 feet high with a 30-foot diameter, able to carry as many as 100 passengers.
Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX has several additional Starship prototypes nearly completed. They will be used for future test flights in South Texas.
Singaporeans in space: the start-ups powering city state’s ascent
Musk said in October he wass “80-90 per cent” confident that Starship would be ready for an orbital flight next year.
Beyond that development milestone, SpaceX has won a contract from Nasa to devise a version of Starship that can land astronauts on the moon in 2024. It also has an agreement with a Japanese entrepreneur for a private flight around the moon in 2023.
SpaceX will be ready to launch its first Starship flight to Mars in 2026, Musk said December 1 at an event in Berlin – or possibly two years sooner if it’s “lucky” with its development progress.


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Indonesia

Jokowi asks SpaceX to consider new rocket launch site in Indonesia

SpaceX launches its first super heavy-lift Starship SN8 rocket during a test from its facility in Boca Chica, Texas, on December 9, 2020. Photo: Reuters

SpaceX's prototype starship takes off during a test flight, Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2020, at their Boca Chica, Texas facility. (Miguel Roberts/The Brownsville Herald via AP)

In this image taken from video posted by SpaceX, the company's Starship becomes engulfed in flames and ruptures upon touching down after a test flight, Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2020, in a remote area of Texas. (SpaceX via AP)

SpaceX Starship prototype blasts off for test flight and crashes in fireball

The SpaceX Starship prototype becomes engulfed in flames and ruptures upon touching down after the test flight. Photo: AP

SpaceX launches its first super heavy-lift Starship SN8 rocket during a test from their facility in Boca Chica,Texas, U.S. December 9, 2020. REUTERS/Gene Blevins

SpaceX’s upgraded Dragon capsule heads for International Space Station bearing Christmas gifts

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on a resupply mission to the International Space Station lifts off at the Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Sunday. Photo: AP

Indonesia’s answer to Nasa aims to launch home-grown rocket into orbit

A miniature test rocket takes off in Lumajang, East Java. Photo: AFP

This picture taken on November 19, 2019 shows workers preparing miniature test rockets as Indonesia's little-known space agency, the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN), prepares for its latest launch on barren scrubland in Lumajang, East Java. - It's a long way from a Mission Control in Houston, but the Southeast Asian archipelago's answer to NASA has sky-is-the-limit hopes and is now planning to build its first spaceport on a tropical island off the coast of easternmost Papua. (Photo by Juni Kriswanto / AFP) / TO GO WITH Indonesia-space,FOCUS by Peter BRIEGER

Indonesian workers prepare a miniature test rocket in Lumajang, East Java. Photo: AFP

With Singapore emerging as space technology hub of Southeast Asia, we talk to scientists, inventors and ‘astropreneurs’ in the Lion City

From left: Praveen Ganapathi Perumal, Simon Gwozdz and Nah Yi Jie of Equatorial Space Systems with their low- altitude demonstration rocket. Photo: Scott A. Woodward

Marvyn Lim Seng discusses his project plans.Credit: Scott A. Woodward[FEATURES 2020]

Marvyn Lim Seng shares his rocket plans.Credit: Scott A. Woodward[FEATURES 2020]

Dr Shu Wei, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of ZES, in front of an LED screen at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore.Credit: Scott A. Woodward[FEATURES 2020]

Simon Gwozdz with the low altitude demonstration rocket.Credit: Scott A. Woodward[FEATURES 2020]

Dr Shu Wei, Chief Technology Officer at ZES, holds an integrated circuit, which is the core of their Latchup Detection and Protection (LDAP) solution.Credit: Scott A. Woodward[FEATURES 2020]

Lynette Tan, Chief Executive and co-founder of Singapore Space and Technology Ltd (SSTL).Credit: Scott A. Woodward[FEATURES 2020]

Nah Yi Jie of Equatorial Space Systems inspects their low altitude demonstration rocket.Credit: Scott A. Woodward[FEATURES 2020]

Surya Shanmugam (left) and Jacob Tang of Starfleet, the winning team of the 2020 Singapore Space Challenge. Photo: Scott A. Woodward

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The president discussed the idea with SpaceX founder Elon Musk during a phone call on Friday
Indonesian officials are also hoping Musk’s Tesla company will build a factory for electric vehicles in the country



Indonesian officials are also hoping Musk’s Tesla company will build a factory for electric vehicles in the country.
