AST SpaceMobile has the FCC’s go-ahead to put its first five commercial BlueBird satellites into orbit. The company announced the license in August 2024, and the timetable it gave was tight: shipment to Cape Canaveral in the first week of August, then a 7-day launch window in September.
The grant is an initial license for space-based operations in the United States. It authorizes the company to launch and operate V, S and UHF frequencies for gateway, feeder link, and telemetry, tracking and control operations on the five spacecraft.
AST said manufacturing, assembly and environmental testing of all five satellites was finished.
Money and jurisdiction
The company’s March 2024 update to its constellation filings with the International Telecommunication Union, along with related FCC filings, placed the planned commercial satellites under United States jurisdiction. The FCC license followed that step.
Investors have been moving too. AST said it secured additional strategic investment during 2024 from AT&T, Verizon, Google and Vodafone, and won a new contract with the U.S. government through a prime contractor.
What the company said
Scott Wisniewski, AST’s president, called the grant “a significant step to targeting 100% nationwide coverage from space of the continental United States on premium cellular spectrum.” He pointed to the partnerships with AT&T, Verizon and Vodafone, and said the aim is to cut dead zones and bring cellular broadband to remote areas.
Vikram Raval, head of global regulatory affairs, said “the FCC grant paves the way for commercial space-based broadband services in the United States.” He described the five BlueBirds as the largest commercial communications arrays ever deployed in low Earth orbit.
