Palapa B2
E179327
Palapa B2 was an Indonesian communications satellite launched in 1984 that infamously failed to reach its proper orbit and was later retrieved and returned to Earth by a Space Shuttle mission.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Palapa B2 canonical | 9 |
| Palapa B2R | 2 |
| Palapa B2P | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1583771 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Palapa B2 Context triple: [STS-41B, deployedSatellite, Palapa B2]
-
A.
Ejaan Yang Disempurnakan
Ejaan Yang Disempurnakan is the modern standardized Indonesian orthography that regulates how the language is written and spelled.
-
B.
Diccionario del estudiante
Diccionario del estudiante is a Spanish-language dictionary created by the Royal Spanish Academy specifically tailored to the needs and usage of students.
-
C.
Book 7A
Book 7A is a former separate section of the Dutch Civil Code that contained specific provisions on obligations and contracts, many of which have since been integrated into Book 7.
-
D.
Kapa o Pango
Kapa o Pango is a modern, specially composed haka performed by New Zealand’s All Blacks rugby team to express their identity, strength, and connection to Māori culture.
-
E.
Perdjoeangan Kita
Perdjoeangan Kita is a political and philosophical work by Indonesian independence leader Sutan Sjahrir that articulates his ideas on nationalism, democracy, and the struggle against colonialism.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Palapa B2 Target entity description: Palapa B2 was an Indonesian communications satellite launched in 1984 that infamously failed to reach its proper orbit and was later retrieved and returned to Earth by a Space Shuttle mission.
-
A.
Ejaan Yang Disempurnakan
Ejaan Yang Disempurnakan is the modern standardized Indonesian orthography that regulates how the language is written and spelled.
-
B.
Diccionario del estudiante
Diccionario del estudiante is a Spanish-language dictionary created by the Royal Spanish Academy specifically tailored to the needs and usage of students.
-
C.
Book 7A
Book 7A is a former separate section of the Dutch Civil Code that contained specific provisions on obligations and contracts, many of which have since been integrated into Book 7.
-
D.
Kapa o Pango
Kapa o Pango is a modern, specially composed haka performed by New Zealand’s All Blacks rugby team to express their identity, strength, and connection to Māori culture.
-
E.
Perdjoeangan Kita
Perdjoeangan Kita is a political and philosophical work by Indonesian independence leader Sutan Sjahrir that articulates his ideas on nationalism, democracy, and the struggle against colonialism.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (44)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Palapa series satellite
ⓘ
communications satellite ⓘ |
| associatedSpaceShuttleAstronauts |
Dale A. Gardner
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Joseph P. Allen ⓘ |
| callsign | Palapa B2 ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | Indonesia ⓘ |
| coverageArea |
Indonesia
ⓘ
Southeast Asia ⓘ |
| failureCause | inadequate performance of the Payload Assist Module-D (PAM-D) ⓘ |
| failureType | orbit insertion failure ⓘ |
| followedBy |
Palapa B2P
ⓘ
linked to:
Palapa B2
Palapa B3 ⓘ
linked to:
Palapa B series
|
| intendedOrbit | geostationary orbit ⓘ |
| intendedOrbitalLongitude | 113 degrees East ⓘ |
| launchDate | 1984-02-03 ⓘ |
| launchMass | about 1,236 kilograms ⓘ |
| launchMission | STS-41B ⓘ |
| launchSite |
Kennedy Space Center LC-39A
ⓘ
linked to:
Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A
|
| launchVehicle | Space Shuttle Challenger ⓘ |
| manufacturer | Hughes Aircraft Company ⓘ |
| missionType | telecommunications ⓘ |
| notableEvent | commercial satellite salvage agreement between NASA, Hughes, and Indonesia ⓘ |
| notableFor | being one of the first commercial satellites retrieved from orbit by the Space Shuttle ⓘ |
| operator |
Indonesian government
ⓘ
linked to:
Government of Indonesia
Perumtel ⓘ |
| orbitRegime | planned geostationary, initially low Earth orbit due to failure ⓘ |
| owner | Government of Indonesia ⓘ |
| precededBy | Palapa B1 ⓘ |
| primaryUse |
telephone communications
ⓘ
television distribution ⓘ |
| program | Palapa B series ⓘ |
| relaunchDate | 1990-04-13 ⓘ |
| relaunchDesignation |
Palapa B2R
ⓘ
linked to:
Palapa B2
|
| relaunchOrbit | geostationary transfer orbit ⓘ |
| relaunchSite | Cape Canaveral LC-17 ⓘ |
| relaunchVehicle |
Delta II 6925
ⓘ
linked to:
Delta rocket
|
| retrievalDate | 1984-11-14 ⓘ |
| retrievalMethod | spacewalk capture and berthing in Shuttle payload bay ⓘ |
| retrievalMission | STS-51A ⓘ |
| retrievalVehicle | Space Shuttle Discovery ⓘ |
| returnedTo |
Earth
ⓘ
manufacturer for refurbishment ⓘ |
| spacecraftBus | HS-376 ⓘ |
| statusAfterLaunch | stranded in low Earth orbit ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Palapa B2 Description of subject: Palapa B2 was an Indonesian communications satellite launched in 1984 that infamously failed to reach its proper orbit and was later retrieved and returned to Earth by a Space Shuttle mission.
Referenced by (12)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Palapa B2
linked to: Palapa B2
subject linked to:
PALAPA B1 communications satellite
linked to: Palapa B2
subject linked to:
Palapa B series
subject linked to:
Space Shuttle Challenger mission STS-41-B