Indian, Australian satellites to launch next week

Arianespace will launch two satellites next week that will provide communications capacity in Australia and India respectively.

In the early hours of October 5, Arianespace will launch Sky Muster II, the second communications satellite for Australia’s national broadband network (NBN), and the GSAT-18 for the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

Sky Muster II will be used to provide NBN services in particularly remote and rural regions of the country. The satellite – along with the Sky Muster I, which launched in September last year – will be used to cover roughly 3% of the population.

GSAT-18 will be used to provide telecommunications services in India, along with ISRO’s current fleet of 14 telecoms satellites.

In other satellite news, Singtel has completed one of the first commercial installations in the APAC region for Inmarsat’s maritime-focused high speed satellite broadband service Fleet Xpress.

Singtel completed he installation on “K” Line Ship Management Singapore’s massive container ship Houston Bridge, the companies announced. The ship management company will use Fleet Xpress for big data analysis to improve operational efficiencies such as monitoring engine performance.

“The launch of Fleet Xpress marks a new page in maritime communications with continuous connectivity and guaranteed performance across the world’s oceans,” Inmarsat Marine chief sales officer Gerbrand Schalkwijk said.

“We have a long standing relationship with Singtel, who are one of our leading partners in Asia, and we look forward to continuing this partnership for many years to come.”