Today in space! 20 March 1987: NASA launches the B2-P satellite for Indonesia.

On 20 March 1987, NASA launched an Indonesian communication satellite entitled Palapa B2-P. It eventually became the first satellite belonging to the Philippines.

Almost ten years after the launch of the satellite in orbit, Pasifik Satelit Nusantara—the Indonesian company that owned the satellite—sold it to the Mabuhay Satellite Corporation in the Philippines. We've been trying to establish our own satellite network for decades.

They eventually purchased the Palapa satellite when President Fidel Ramos declared that he wanted one in time for an international forum that the country would host later that year. The president succeeded, and the country's first satellite was relocated to its new orbit with three months to spare. Mabuhay changed the name of the satellite from Palapa to Agila, which stands for "Eagle" in Filipino.