On this day in space! June 20, 1983: Space Shuttle Challenger deploys Palapa B satellite

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On June 20, 1983, the crew of the space shuttle Challenger — including America's first space woman Sally Ride — deployed an Indonesian communications satellite called Palapa-B1 into orbit.

On June 20, 1983, the crew of the space shuttle Challenger — including America's first space woman Sally Ride — deployed an Indonesian communications satellite called Palapa-B1 into orbit.

Palapa is a series of satellites owned by the Indonesian telecommunication company Telkom. All nine satellites were launched by the U.S., starting with the first in 1976. This made Indonesia become the first developing country to operate its own domestic satellite system.

The Indonesian Palapa B communications satellite is seen just about to clear the vertical stabilizer of the space shuttle Challenger to begin its way toward its Earth-orbital destination on June 20, 1983. (Image credit: NASA)

Palapa satellites now provide communication to more than 6,000 islands in Indonesia.

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Hanneke Weitering
Hanneke Weitering
Contributing expert

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos.