AST SpaceMobile puts first five commercial LEO satellites into orbit for direct-to-device service

Satellite-direct-to-device provider AST SpaceMobile today launched its first five Bluebird low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites to mark the beginning of its constellation that is designed to deliver global 4G/5G broadband services to unmodified devices in partnership with some of the world’s largest cellular carriers.

AST SpaceMobile CEO Abel Avellan said the launch of the five Bluebird satellites is the latest step in Midland, Texas-based AST SpaceMobile’s goal to “basically keep the world connected” by augmenting wireless carrier’s terrestrial-wireless networks with satellite-direct-to-device coverage globally.

“We are working on building the first and only broadband system that connects to the phone you just have in your pocket,” Avellan said prior to the satellite launch conducted by SpaceX, which was webcast. “That is a tremendous, tremendous goal.

“We’re extremely, extremely proud. We’re extremely, extremely thankful, and we hope to change the world together with you. This is the beginning of that journey.”

Chris Sambar, AT&T’s president in charge of the carrier’s global network and former head of its FirstNet unit, stressed the importance of the AST SpaceMobile satellite-direct-to-device vision promises to have on the first-responder community, in terms of both communications capabilities and reliability.

“First responders operate in some really challenging conditions and some really challenging areas—down on the border, out in the rural areas, in storms, during wildfires,” Sambar said in a video shown minutes before the launch. “For them to have full connectivity—not just voice and text connectivity, but full data connectivity—is really important for them to do their jobs protecting us day to day and also to protect their own lives.”

“Current satellite solutions on the market only provide voice service, limited texting service, and to some extent, they’ll provide data service, but it’s very rare. [With AST SpaceMobile, it] is a completely different ballgame that they’re going after. This is going to look very similar to cell service.

Sambar acknowledged that he questioned the viability of satellite-direct-to-device technology when Avellan first told him about the AST SpaceMobile vision six years ago, but he is glad that AT&T chose to support the development, as have many carriers throughout the world.

“I remember thinking in the back of my head, ‘This guy [Avellan] is crazy, but this is pretty interesting idea, and he’s really, really smart—I knew that—and he’s been really, really successful in his endeavors thus far, so we should get into this and see what it’s all about,’” Sambar said in the video. “It’s just amazing what they’ve been able to put together and accomplish thus far.

“Now, we’re on the cusp of putting five satellites in space and bringing this whole dream to reality. It’s so exciting.”

AST SpaceMobile President Scott Wisniewski said the five Bluebird satellites—covering 700 square feet when fully deployed in orbit—are the same size as the BlueWalker 3 satellite that has enabled significant breakthrough tests of satellite-direct-to-device technology. However, the Bluebird satellites launched today support 10 times the data throughput of BlueWalker 3.

And AST SpaceMobile’s next-generation satellites—the first of which is scheduled to be launched during the first quarter of next year—will be more than three times the size of today Bluebird satellites at 2,400 square feet and are designed to provide 10 times more throughput, Wisniewski said. In other words, the AST SpaceMobile next-generation satellites are expected to provide 100 times more data throughput than the BlueWalker 3 test satellite, he said.

In addition to the launch of a single satellite in the first quarter next year, Wisniewski said another 17 next-generation satellites are “in production” by AST SpaceMobile.

“We have not announced the timeline for those,” Wisniewski said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “But given how much capital we’ve raised and the fact that we’re now transitioning from Block 1 to Block 2 after [today], we’re trying to go as fast as possible. So we expect more launches in 2025 and beyond.”

AST SpaceMobile officials noted that it will take weeks for the Bluebird satellites to fully deploy and be tested for operations. When they are ready, AST SpaceMobile will begin providing some services, although the company’s constellation will need many more satellites before contiguous broadband services can be offered.

“We’ll be providing intermittent services, U.S. government services, and services for beta users with AT&T and Verizon,” Wisniewski said. “We haven’t announced details around that yet, but we think they’ll be operational about three months after the launch.

“These are non-contiguous services, so this is not a mass-market solution yet—we need to launch more satellites [to offer that], of course.”