AST SpaceMobile Targets 45 Satellites in Orbit for 2026

AST SpaceMobile reported accelerating deployment of its low Earth orbit cellular broadband constellation, with BlueBird 8, 9, and 10 scheduled for launch in mid-June aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The company said it expects to have approximately 45 BlueBird satellites in orbit by the end of 2026, supported by launch agreements with multiple providers including Blue Origin and SpaceX. Manufacturing operations are ramping rapidly, with BlueBird 11 through BlueBird 33 already in advanced production and assembly stages across more than 500,000 square feet (46,450 square meters) of manufacturing and operations facilities.

The company also disclosed a new peak throughput milestone of 98.9 Mbps achieved from an in-orbit Block 1 BlueBird satellite directly to an unmodified smartphone over international waters. AST SpaceMobile said its next-generation Block 2 BlueBird satellites are expected to nearly double those data rates. In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission granted Supplemental Coverage from Space authorization for commercial SpaceMobile service using a constellation of up to 248 satellites, marking a major regulatory milestone for direct-to-device broadband operations.

AST SpaceMobile continues to expand its global mobile operator ecosystem, adding TELUS in Canada and Axian Telecom in Africa alongside existing partnerships with Vodacom, Orange, MTN Group, and nearly 60 global mobile network operators representing more than 3 billion subscribers. The company said it is conducting scaled ground integration efforts across the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, India, Brazil, Spain, Germany, France, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Nigeria, and Senegal, covering a combined population of 2.9 billion people. AST SpaceMobile also disclosed work on AI edge computing and AI spectrum management capabilities targeted for satellite integration by year-end.