Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia
About Taufik Akbar
- Taufik Akbar (born January 8, 1951 in Medan) is an Indonesian engineer and former astronaut candidate. After graduating at the Bandung Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1975, he worked as a telecommunication engineer.
- While working for Telkom in the development of the Palapa telecommunication satellite system, he was selected to take part in the Space Shuttle mission STS-61-H as a Payload Specialist in October 1985.
- While Pratiwi Sudarmono was chosen to be in the flight crew, he was supposed to be her backup on the mission.
- However, after the Challenger disaster the deployment of commercial satellites like the Indonesian Palapa B-3 planned for that mission was canceled, thus the mission never took place.
- The satellite was later launched with a Delta rocket. After his astronaut career, he continued to work for Telkom.
- Within 1990-92, he was General Manager Telecommunication Planning, Executive General Manager for Palapa Satellites Operation (1992–1993), President Director of Aplikanusa Lintasarta (1994–2000).
- In 2000, he became Director of Human Resources.
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