Next-Gen BlueBirds Head for Orbit
Jul 22, 2026
Final preparations are already underway at AST SpaceMobile for a new phase of its ongoing orbital deployment campaign. Three fresh satellites, BlueBirds 11, 12, and 13, now carry a target launch window in early August 2026, when they are expected to finally enter low Earth orbit.
Credit: AST SpaceMobile
The satellites will fly aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This mission follows directly on the successful June 17 deployment of BlueBirds 8, 9, and 10, which are currently undergoing orbital phasing and checkout procedures. The company has said the new launch keeps pace with its aggressive third-quarter manifest and reflects steady progress toward full commercial service. Scott Wisniewski, president of AST SpaceMobile, said the mission builds on the momentum of the recent constellation expansion and represents another milestone as the company prepares for commercial rollout, while pointing to ongoing production of satellites through BlueBird 37 as evidence of its manufacturing strength.
The three BlueBirds are on the newer Block 2 satellite platform built by the company, and have a stackable, carbon-composite design that allows multiple large satellites to be launched together in a single fairing. They each carry a phased array antenna that covers nearly 2,400 square feet, making them among the largest commercial antenna structures currently operating anywhere in LEO. These arrays are powered by custom in-house-developed AST5000 chips that reportedly can support thousands of coverage cells per satellite. Combined, these elements will roughly double the peak download speeds of the previous Block 1 satellites, pushing them from about 100 megabits per second up toward 200 megabits per second on unmodified phones.
This shift in the launch manifest is partly a response to a difficult moment earlier in the year. A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket carrying BlueBird 7 suffered an upper-stage failure in April, an event that pushed AST SpaceMobile to shift upcoming launches entirely onto Falcon 9. As a consequence, full commercial rollout is now expected to slip three to six months, landing sometime in the first half of 2027 instead. Even with that setback, the company has kept building out its commercial base, now working with close to 60 mobile carriers around the globe representing over three billion combined subscribers, while AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone, Rakuten, and Google remain among its key strategic backers.
The upcoming mission carries significance for government work as well, not just consumer service, since AST SpaceMobile serves as a prime contractor for both the Space Development Agency and the Missile Defense Agency and is embedding secure, dedicated frequency channels into its arrays for military applications. Its Midland, Texas facility, covering roughly 500,000 square feet, remains well-funded, with satellite components already moving through production up to BlueBird 37. The company’s representatives note the August date isn’t locked in, since launch-provider readiness, Cape Canaveral weather, and other outside factors could still push it back, though the BlueBirds 11, 12, and 13 mission still stands as a meaningful step toward the broader commercial and government service planned for 2027.
