TAMPA, Fla. — AST SpaceMobile’s first five commercial direct-to-smartphone satellites are ready to be shipped to Cape Canaveral in a few weeks, the company said July 25 in anticipation of a return to service for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
The Block 1 BlueBird satellites have a contract for a seven-day launch window in September that was updated July 18, AST SpaceMobile said in a news release, a week after an upper stage Falcon 9 malfunction led SpaceX to ground the rocket.
An AST SpaceMobile spokesperson said an exact launch date remains subject to regulatory approvals, the weather and other conditions.
The Federal Aviation Administration must approve Falcon 9 poses no threat to public safety before launches can resume.
The rare mission failure for SpaceX, resulting in the loss of 20 of the company’s Starlink broadband satellites, strains a packed manifest of customers that have come to rely on the company’s aggressive mission cadence.
Among the backlog is NASA, which said July 17 it is preparing to use Falcon 9 to launch a Cygnus cargo vehicle to the International Space Station as early as August. The crewed Falcon 9 launch to the ISS is slated for no earlier than mid-August.
The Falcon 9 hiatus threatens to delay further AST SpaceMobile’s first batch of BlueBird satellites, which the company had once aimed to deploy last year before running into supply chain issues.
AST SpaceMobile said it is preparing to transport the completed Block 1 batch by truck in the first week of August from its facilities in Texas to Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The company said in its previous update that it was working to deliver the satellites in July or August for a launch to low Earth orbit (LEO).
“Completing the manufacturing, assembly, and environmental testing for these satellites represents a significant milestone in our mission to bridge the digital divide and deliver connectivity to those who need it most,” AST SpaceMobile chair and CEO Abel Avellan said in a statement.
According to AST SpaceMobile, a Block 1 BlueBird would have 10 times the capacity of its BlueWalker-3 prototype, which has achieved download rates of about 14 megabits per second since launching to LEO in 2022.
The company also has a contract with SpaceX to launch its first Block 2 BlueBird, designed to have 10 times the capacity of a Block 1 spacecraft, which runs between December and March.
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