The Sky Muster satellites are two

geostationary A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular geosynchronous orbit in altitud ...

(GEO)

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a Transponder (satellite communications), transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a Rad ...

s operated by NBN Co Limited and built by SSL. They were launched in 2015 and 2016 to provide fast broadband in areas where NBN didn't want to either lay fiber or install enough wireless antennas and offshore. The satellites are positioned above the

equator The equator is the circle of latitude that divides Earth into the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Southern Hemisphere, Southern Hemispheres of Earth, hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, about in circumferen ...

, north of Australia. They provide download speeds to users of up to 100 Mbit/s, and upload speeds of 10 Mbit/s in a best-case scenario. Each Sky Muster has 101

spot beam A spot beam, in telecommunications parlance, is a satellite signal that is specially concentrated in power (i.e. sent by a high-gain antenna) so that it will cover only a limited geographic area on Earth. Spot beams are used so that only Earth stat ...

s, which are focused satellite signals which are specially concentrated in power and cover a specific geographic area. The electromagnetic K_a band spot beams are used to carry information from the end users' equipment on the ground to the satellites. Each satellite offers 80 gigabits per second of bandwidth. The two satellites will provide high-speed broadband service to 400,000 Australian homes and businesses in rural and remote Australia. The two satellites were designed to provide service for at least 15 years. Sky Muster I (NBN-Co 1A) was launched on 1 October 2015 from the

Guiana Space Centre The Guiana Space Centre (; CSG), also called Europe's Spaceport, is a spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana, an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas region of France in South America. Kourou is located approxim ...

in French Guiana, South America, alongside Argentina's

ARSAT-2 ARSAT-2 is a geostationary communications satellite operated by ARSAT and built by the Argentine company INVAP. It was launched from French Guiana alongside Sky Muster satellite using an Ariane 5ECA rocket on September 30, 2015 at 20:30hs UTC, ...

, on an

Ariane 5 Ariane 5 is a retired European heavy-lift space launch vehicle operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA). It was launched from the Guiana Space Centre (CSG) in French Guiana. It was used to deliver payloads into geostationar ...

ECA rocket. Sky Muster I operates in geostationary orbit of 140° East. Sky Muster I became operational in April 2016. Sky Muster II (NBN-Co 1B) was launched on 5 October 2016, and operates in geostationary orbit of 145° East. Initial services were offered on the service to end users commencing in January, 2016. As of June 2020, there are over 100,000 active customers connected to a Sky Muster service, with the largest single Retail Service Provider of Sky Muster services being SkyMesh with over 40,000 active Sky Muster connections.

Background

The two NBN satellites, Sky Muster (NBN-Co 1A) and Sky Muster II (NBN-Co 1B), were conceived in 2012 under the Gillard Labor government, as part of the original

National Broadband Network The National Broadband Network (NBN) is Australia’s national wholesale open-access data network. It includes wired and radio communication components rolled out and operated by NBN Co, a government-owned corporation. Internet service provid ...

scheme and NBN Co contracted

Space Systems/Loral SSL, formerly Space Systems/Loral, LLC (SS/L), of Palo Alto, California, is a wholly owned manufacturing subsidiary of Maxar Technologies. SSL designs and builds satellites and space systems for a wide variety of government and commercial cust ...

(SSL) to build and launch the two satellites as part of a total investment costing . The launch was conducted in accordance with the ''Space Activities Act 1998'', which requires Ministerial approval for the launch of a space object from Australia or the launch of a space object by an Australian entity from an overseas location. Bailey Brooks, a six-year old

School of the Air School of the Air is a generic term for correspondence schools catering for the primary and early secondary education of children in remote and outback Australia where some or all classes were historically conducted by radio, although this is ...

student who lives on a

cattle station In Australia and New Zealand, a cattle station is a large farm ( station is equivalent to the American ranch), the main activity of which is the rearing of cattle. The owner of a cattle station is called a '' grazier''. The largest cattle stati ...

from Alice Springs, won a competition to draw a picture of how the satellite benefits rural Australians. Her drawing of the rocket was printed on the

payload fairing A payload fairing or nose fairing is a nose cone used to protect a launch vehicle, spacecraft payload (air and space craft), payload against the impact of dynamic pressure and aerodynamic heating during launch through an atmosphere. An additiona ...

, and her class named NBN-Co 1A "Sky Muster" as it would bring Australians together like a cattle muster.

References

External links

Sky Muster Launch

{{Orbital launches in 2015 Satellites of Australia Spacecraft launched in 2015 2015 in Australia