&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "US firm's BlueBird satellite to reach India in mid-Oct; Launch could take place by December")
American firm AST SpaceMobile has announced that its BlueBird 6 Internet-beaming satellite has completed its final assembly and testing, and is ready for flight. If all goes well, the firm is expected to load the satellite onto an Antonov cargo plane on October 12th and fly it to Chennai in Southern India, from where it would be trucked to the ISRO Spaceport Satish Dhawan Space Centre, about 85kms north of Chennai. ISRO's largest rocket, the LVM3, is meant to carry the 6,500kg BlueBird 6 to orbit (about 550km above Earth). The 6,500kg satellite would be the heaviest satellite to be carried by an Indian rocket.
Once the satellite reaches the Indian spaceport in mid-October, it would be safe to assume that the launch would be carried out in 30-45 days, which means the BlueBird 6 could take to the skies by December. In the intervening 30-45 days, the assembly activities of the rocket, the testing, and fuelling of the satellite, and other pre-launch preparations are carried out.
Notably, ISRO is gearing up for the launch of the Indian communications satellite CMS-02 by the end of October. 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 3 months, something that has not been done before.
As a launch services provider (rocket builder and operator), the Indian Space Agency launches foreign-origin satellites into space commercially. These commercial space missions (like a taxi ferrying a passenger) are handled by ISRO's commercial arm NSIL, which earns revenue for the Indian government.
AST SpaceMobile and its internet-beaming satellites
AST SpaceMobile is a Texas-based telecom company that aims to build and launch a fleet of satellites that can directly provide internet connectivity to mobile phones. As per reports, the firm 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.
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The firm has announced that they have a series of satellites that will be launched in the coming months. "BlueBird 7 is expected to ship to the Cape Canaveral launch site in October, 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 2,400 sq 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 their own licensed spectrum with partner spectrum.
Repeated delays in BlueBird 6 launch
As per the January 2025 announcement by the Indian government, the American satellite was to be launched by India's LVM3-M5 rocket in March 2025. In April, the Indian Government said that the BlueBird launch would take place aboard the LVM3-M5 rocket in July 2025.
In July 2025, following the successful launch of the Indo-US NISAR satellite, ISRO Chief Dr V. Narayanan said that ISRO would be launching a CMS-02 satellite aboard the LVM3-M5 rocket. This meant that the rocket originally allocated for BlueBird was being reallocated to a different satellite, known as CMS-02. The reasons for this reallocation were not revealed.
In August, in the run-up to the National Space Day celebrations, ISRO Chief Dr V. Narayanan shared an ISRO launch schedule which said that the BlueBird mission would be launched by the LVM3-M6 rocket between January and March 2026.
Unconfirmed reports say that the US firm has been facing delays at its end, which has been delaying its planned Block-2 satellite launches from India and abroad.
