National Institute of Aeronautics and Space

National Institute of Aeronautics and Space is the Indonesian government space agency. It was established on November 27, 1963, by former Indonesian president Sukarno after one year's existence of an informal space agency organization. LAPAN is responsible for long-term civilian and military aerospace research. For over two decades, it has managed satellites and domain-developed small scientific-technology satellites Lapan and telecommunication satellites Palapa, which were built by Hughes and launched from the US on Delta rockets or from French Guiana using Ariane 4 and Ariane 5 rockets. It has also developed sounding rockets and has been trying to develop small orbital space launchers. The LAPAN A1 in 2007 and LAPAN A2 satellites were launched by India in 2015.HistoryOn May 31, 1962, Indonesia commenced aeronautics exploration when the Aeronautics Committee was established by the Indonesian prime minister, Juanda, who was also the head of Indonesian Aeronautics. The secretary of Indonesian Aeronautics, RJ Salatun, was also involved in the establishment.On September 22, 1962, the Initial Scientific and Military Rocket Project (known in Indonesia as Proyek Roket Ilmiah dan Militer Awal or "PRIMA") was formed as an affiliation of AURI (Indonesian Air Force) and ITB (Bandung Institute of Technology). The outcome of the project was the launching of two "Kartika"("star") series rockets and their telemetric ordnances.