Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The National Aeronautics and Space Agency (LAPAN) is building a rocket named RX-550 with a cruising capacity of more than 200 kilometers in the initial phase of a project to make one capable of putting a satellite in orbit, a spokesman said.

LAPAN spokesman Soewarto Hardhienata said here on Thursday the RX-550 rocket would undergo a static test in December this year and a flight test in 2012.

"This one, which will consist of four stages, will be part of an RPS-01 rocket to put a satellite in orbit," Soewarto said.

He said LAPAN had earlier successfully tested the flights of RX-320 and RX-420 rockets whose components would be used to build a RPS-01 rocket to carry a satellite to an orbit around earth. 

The rockets, he said, would be the prototypes of satellite carrying rockets to be launched in 2014. 

"Besides developing home-made rockets, we are also doing a satellite making project. The aim is to have home-made rockets and satellites," Soewarto said.

He said LAPAN had in the past three years been implementing a project to make an earth surface monitoring satellite as part of its efforts to master satellite technology.

"The result was our Polar LAPAN-TUBSAT (LAPAN-A1) satellite created in cooperation with Germany," he said, adding that the satellite was successfully placed in orbit and until now still functioning well.

Source: AntaraNews