AST SpaceMobile Successfully Launched its BlueBird 8, 9 & 10 Satellites Overnight (With SpaceX)

(Midland, Texas) AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ: ASTS) announced overnight that its BlueBird 8, 9 ,10 mission lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station aboard a SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) Falcon 9 rocket at 2.39 EDT this morning (Jun. 17).

Image of this morning’s (Jun. 17) AST SpaceMobile BlueBirds 8, 9 & 10 launch via SpaceX’s Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, courtesy of spaceflight photographer Michael Cain and The FLY Report / FLYJETS.

Per AST SpaceMobile, BlueBirds 8, 9, and 10 satellites are the largest commercial communications arrays ever deployed in low Earth orbit, measuring approximately 2,400 square feet. The satellites’ expansive antenna arrays enable direct, reliable connectivity to standard smartphones, with high power generation in orbit.

The next-generation BlueBird satellites are designed to deliver nearly double the peak data speeds of AST’s initial Block 1 BlueBird satellites, which recently achieved peak download speeds of 98.9 Mbps directly to standard smartphones, supporting voice, broadband data, and video applications from space.

“BlueBirds 8, 9, and 10 represent the continued execution of a vision once considered impossible: space-based cellular broadband to everyone, everywhere” said Abel Avellan, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of AST SpaceMobile. “Our team has built a new class of space-based cellular broadband technology that connects seamlessly to everyday smartphones. This is a fundamental transformation of how the world connects. We invented this market, and we are executing and advancing our network to make global, space-based cellular broadband a reality.”

AST’s BlueBirds 11, 12 and 13 will ship imminently for the company’s next launch, and BlueBird satellites through BlueBird 37 are currently in placative production and assembly, according to Avellan.