A six-year-old kid from the outback will see her drawing shoot into outer space after winning a nationwide contest to decorate the rocket launching the first satellite for the National Broadband Network.
Bailey Brooks lives in the middle of Australia at Lilla Creek station, in a cattle farm 432km south of Alice Springs.
She goes to school over the internet through live streaming, and entered the NBN Shoot for the Stars competition in February with a felt-tip drawing showing her sitting on top of her house next to a satellite dish beamed up at a sky strewn with stars.
"It's about me happy at my place in the middle of Australia with all the pretty stars," Bailey explained to AAP, saying that her spindly satellite "gives us fast internet" so she can attend school.
Her drawing will be displayed on the nose cone of the rocket transporting an NBN satellite, titled "Sky Muster", into orbit.
Bailey and her fellow year one internet classmates brainstormed the name as a reflection of how speedy internet would "round up" and connect Australians.
The Sky Muster satellite is due to launch from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana later this year and will be the first of two NBN satellites to be sent into space.
Her mother described Bailey as an avid drawer who loves space, with a special interest in the planet Neptune.
"She's just a little kid from the desert so it was really exciting for her to be able to win this," Tanya Brooks said.
"We're so proud of her that she's got something as longlasting as this.
"I think she'll remember this forever."
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