Indonesia National Development Planning Minister Suharso Monoarfa announced a special request from Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX). The company founded by Elon Musk has asked permission to build an airport in IKN, or the future new capital of Indonesia in the province of East Kalimantan.
In his report to the ad hoc committee group (Pansus) on the IKN bill, Suharso said that SpaceX is interested in launching high-speed aircraft on IKN.
"Perhaps the chairman of the special committee came to SpaceX in Los Angeles, there they asked Indonesia to be one of the points in IKN, besides Biak, for a place to launch aircraft at an extraordinary speed," Suharso said at a meeting with the Special Committee on IKN Bill, (14/1/2022).
Reasons for the construction of the SpaceX airport in Indonesia
According to Suharso, SpaceX considers Indonesia a suitable place to build its airport due to the country's geographic location. By building an airport for their missiles and aircraft at IKN, the journey between Indonesia and the US is estimated to be reduced to just 2 hours.
According to Suharso, this is very positive for Indonesia. Because Indonesia has access to special transportation to the United States.
"Not just a connection between the US and Indonesia, by building an airport at IKN, SpaceX can facilitate travel between other countries such as Singapore, Australia, and other Asian countries."
“So, you can get from Indonesia to the USA in just 1.5 or 2 hours. And from there, accessible airports will appear that will take you to Singapore, other Asian regions, Australia and so on,” Suharso explained.
