BLAST OFF! NBN Co today announced that it has literally found a launch partner to help blast its satellites into space come-2015.
The satellites will be used to get the National Broadband Network service to folks living in rural and remote areas of Australia and they’re set to be launched into orbit by a company called Arianespace.
The launches will take place in the European spaceport located in a place called French Guiana. According to NBN Co, the spaceport straddles the equator on the North Atlantic coast of South America.
Here’s what the payload consists of:
Two purpose-built communications satellites, currently under construction in California by Space Systems/Loral, will lift off aboard two 777,000-tonne Ariane 5 heavy-lift rockets which will deliver the payloads into geostationary orbit to serve Australia.
Let the countdown begin!
Image: Arianespace