Ukrainian plane with US' Bluebird satellite lands in India; launch by ISRO soon

Ukraine's Antonov-124 'Ruslan' cargo plane carrying US firm AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird 6 communication satellite landed at the southern Indian city of Chennai on Thursday, 16th October. Chennai Airport Director Raja Kishore told WION that the long-haul cargo plane, the largest operational cargo aircraft in the world, landed at 7am in the city airport. Over the next 24 hours, the satellite is to be trucked to the Indian Space agency ISRO's spaceport Satish Dhawan Space Centre, about 90kms north of Chennai. Almost all foreign satellites scheduled for launch with ISRO are flown to Chennai, the nearest airport, before being trucked to the spaceport in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

ISRO's largest rocket the LVM3 is meant to carry the 6,500kg BlueBird 6 to orbit(about 550kms above earth). The 6,500kg satellite would be the heaviest satellite to be carried by an Indian rocket. This mission is being executed as part of a commercial deal between ISRO's business arm NewSpace India Limited(NSIL) and the Texas-based AST SpaceMobile. As a launch services provider(rocket builder and operator), ISRO launches foreign-origin satellites to space on a commercial basis.These commercial space missions are like a taxi ferrying a passenger. In this case, the passenger is the US firm, which will pay the Indian Government for the launch service.

Once the satellite reaches the Indian spaceport, it would be safe to assume that the launch would be carried out in 45-60 days, which means the BlueBird 6 could take to the skies by December or January. In the intervening period, the assembly activities of the rocket and satellite, the testing and fuelling of the satellite, other pre-launch preparations are carried out.

Notably, ISRO is gearing up for the launch of an Indian communications satellite CMS-02 by the end of October or early November. Like the BlueBird 6, CMS-02 would also fly on an LVM3 rocket. As it stands, the CMS-02 would be launched on a rocket designated as LVM-M5, and the BlueBird would fly on LVM3-M6. Therefore, it would be safe to assume that ISRO would be executing two LVM3 launches in a span of 3-4 months, something that has not been done before.

About AST SpaceMobile and their internet-beaming satellites

ASTSpaceMobile is a Texas-based telecom company that aims to build andlaunch a fleet of satellites that can directly provide internet connectivity to mobile phones. Typically, only purpose-built satellite phones are capable of communicating with satellites. These traditional satellite phone handsets are bulky and require visible antennas, they offer voice connectivity, and low-bandwidth texting and data services. Such services are offered by firms such as Iridium, Thuraya, among others., and are widely used in the defence and maritime sectors for providing connectivity where no communications infrastructure exists.

Firms like AST and Starlink are attempting to change this by ensuring direct connectivity between smartphones and satellites. Therefore, the popular phones Android and Apple devices available in the market can be directly used to communicate with the support of satellites, without any extra or special hardware. Thanks to the global coverage planned using a fleet of satellites, such services would eventually enable cell phone connectivity almost anywhere on Earth. In simple terms, one need not worry about being "not reachable" or "out of coverage area".

As per reports, AST presently has a fleet of five first-generation (Block-1) satellites in orbit. The firm plans to launch a fleet of 45-60 second-generation (Block-2)satellites to offer services in major global regions, it is said.

The firm has announced that they have a series of satellites that will be launching in the coming months. BlueBird 7 has shipped to the Cape Canaveral, Florida launch site this month, BlueBirds 8-16 are in various stages of production, with launches planned every 1-2 months on average during 2025 and 2026, the firm announced.

They expect to have 45-60 satellites in orbit by year-end 2026. It is touted that these BlueBird satellites(by size) will be the largest commercial satellites ever deployed in Low Earth orbit (about 600kms above earth). Each of these satellites would carry a 2,400sq feet phased array antenna with true direct-to-cell broadband, with a claimed capability of up to 10,000 MHz of processing bandwidth and claimed peak speeds of 120 Mbps per cell.

The firm says they have partnered with 50+ mobile network operators serving nearly 3 billion subscribers, supported by a flexible spectrum strategy blending our own licensed spectrum with partner spectrum.