Future TechnologyThe largest commercial comms satellites ever are now in orbit, and they talk to your phone
Key takeaways
- AST SpaceMobile launched BlueBirds 8, 9, and 10 on June 17, the largest commercial comms satellites ever in LEO
- Each satellite spans roughly 2,400 square feet of antenna and delivers broadband directly to standard smartphones
- Block 2 satellites are designed for nearly double the peak data speeds of Block 1, which already demonstrated 98.9 Mbps
- The company is targeting around 45 satellites in orbit by end of 2026, with commercial service coverage expanding from there
On June 17, 2026, a SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station carrying three satellites for AST SpaceMobile: BlueBirds 8, 9, and 10. These aren't ordinary communications satellites.
Each one measures approximately 2,400 square feet of antenna array when fully deployed. For reference, that's roughly the size of a standard doubles badminton court, suspended in low Earth orbit at around 500 kilometres altitude. They're the largest commercial communications satellites ever deployed in LEO, and each one is designed not to talk to ground stations or dish antennas, but directly to standard, unmodified mobile phones.
What AST SpaceMobile is building
Most satellite broadband works by selling you a terminal: a dish, a box, something you point at the sky. Starlink, OneWeb, Amazon Kuiper, all require hardware. AST SpaceMobile's proposition is that you shouldn't need any of that. The service is designed to work with the phone already in your pocket, using the same cellular frequencies as your carrier's ground towers, with the satellite essentially acting as a very high altitude cell tower.
The Block 1 BlueBird satellites, launched earlier in 2026, have already demonstrated 98.9 Mbps peak download speeds directly to standard smartphones. That's faster than a decent home broadband connection, delivered from orbit to a device with no modifications.
The Block 2 BlueBirds (satellites 8-10) are designed to deliver nearly double the peak data speeds of the Block 1 constellation, which suggests the technology is maturing quickly. AST SpaceMobile has carrier partnerships with AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone, Rakuten, and others, and is working toward a commercial service offering that supplements ground coverage, particularly in rural or emergency scenarios where cell towers don't reach.
What to watch
AST SpaceMobile is targeting approximately 45 satellites in orbit by the end of 2026, with launches roughly every one to two months. Scale matters enormously here: the more satellites, the more simultaneous users the system can handle, and the more geographies it can cover at any given time. The company is currently in the gap between "technically impressive demo" and "commercially meaningful service," and the next 18 months will determine whether it can close that gap.
The business model also depends on carrier agreements, which are signed but not yet generating significant revenue. What's genuinely interesting about this technology, if it scales, is the coverage geography: rural areas, maritime routes, disaster zones, and the roughly 40% of Earth's surface that has no cellular coverage at all.