Sky Muster II NBN satellite launching October 5th

The NBN project is powering on and on October 5th, the nbn will launch their second satellite, Sky Muster II. Once switched on for service, Sky Muster II will add support for around 400,000 homes and business in regional and remote Australia.

The rocket launch to deliver Sky Muster II will take off from French Guiana Space Centre in South America, and the satellite will orbit at 36,000km from earth. While it seems SpaceX is launching rockets every other week at this point, there is something pretty special about this payload, its one of the world’s largest communications satellites, weighing in at 6,400kgs.

The first Sky Muster satellite launched late last year and is already delivering internet to tens of thousands of customers. The nbn weekly progress report shows that as of the 14th of July, there were 411,056 who could receive internet via the nbn satellite, however just 40,714 are actually paying for a service. This compares with 2,916,247 total premises capable of getting an nbn service and 1,134,787 who actually do.

nbn today also revealed the first glimpse of the artwork that will be printed on the nosecone of the rocket, which will launch Sky Muster II into orbit. The mosaic-style image is made up of more than 700 lucky Australians who won the chance to include an image of their face on this historic piece of national infrastructure.

Our beautiful second #satellite #SkyMuster2 preparing for testing. At least about 6 men high. #nbn pic.twitter.com/IO1C9c0lwe

— karina keisler (@karinakeisler) July 12, 2016

Julia Dickinson, nbn’s Satellite Architect said:

“The nbn Sky Muster satellite service is transforming the day-to-day lives of people from all over the country. We are already seeing how access to fast broadband for small businesses and farms in the most remote outback and offshore locations can improve productivity by better enabling the ability to store files in the cloud and avoid lengthy business trips by communicating with customers and suppliers through more reliable video conferencing.

“To ensure every Australian, no matter where they live, could have the chance to be a part of this history-making moment, we held a nationwide callout for people to win the opportunity to ‘blast their face into space’. Representing the millions of connections made through the nbn network, the winners’ faces make-up a national portrait of our country, which will be printed on the nosecone of the rocket that will launch the Sky Muster II satellite into the sky.

“This is an enormous project and we are doing our best to deliver the nbn Sky Muster service as fast as we can, but reaching all corners of the country will take some time.”

CEO of Grain Growers, Alicia Garden said:

“Grain Growers Limited represents grain farmers across Australia. Like any other business, grain farmers require fast, affordable, reliable internet connectivity to operate their enterprises to their potential. However, currently many farmers are not able to access connectivity comparable to their urban counterparts. Access to the nbn Sky Muster service signals a potential game-changer for grain growers. It will enhance connectivity standards to improve the efficiency and profitability of Australian farming by changing the way farmers do business – in particular their capacity to collect, analyse and apply agriculture data.”

The Sky Muster satellites will bring nbn closer to their goal of connecting all Australians, with the rollout designed to ensure that everyone has access to fast broadband by 2020.

You can get more info on Sky Muster at the nbn blog series.