Blue Origin
AST SpaceMobile to deliver U.S. nationwide LEO satellite services in 2026
LEO satellite broadband startup AST SpaceMobil Inc. has secured over $1 billion in total contracted revenue commitments from commercial partners, demonstrating strong commercial traction. The company has signed definitive commercial agreements with major telecom operators such as Verizon, AT&T and Saudi Telecom Group (stc) for direct-to-device (D2D) services, thereby expanding its commercial ecosystem. All told, AST has commercial agreements with over 50 mobile network operators with nearly 3 billion subscribers globally.
The company has strengthened its financial position with over $3.2 billion in cash and liquidity, ensuring funding for its satellite constellation and global service expansion. While it has yet to generate revenue from its LEO satellite broadband service, it reported $14.7 million revenue in the third quarter, up from $1.1 million in the previous year, driven by gateway sales to operators and US government contracts.
Importantly, AST said it expects to deliver “intermittent nationwide” LEO satellite service in selected markets in early 2026 with “continuous” service planned for later in 2026 as more satellites are added, according to CEO Abel Avellan, speaking on the company’s third quarter earnings call. In particular:
“We expect to continue scale deployment efforts early next year as we progress activation of an intermittent nationwide service by early 2026 and prepare for continued service later in 2026.”
AST remains committed to its target to have 45 to 60 BlueBird satellites in orbit by the end of 2026, which would enable continuous service across the US, Europe, Japan and “other strategic markets.” Longer-term, the aim is to expand the service to “all targeted” markets with 90 satellites.
Five launches for AST’s next generation BlueBird satellites are planned to take place by the end of the first quarter in 2026, after which launches will be once every one or two months to meet the goal of 45 to 60 satellites in orbit. Of the initial five launches, the first is scheduled for mid-December from India and the remaining four will be from Cape Canaveral with partners SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. The latter’s New Glenn rocket can take up to eight BlueBird satellites while SpaceX’s Falcon 9 can carry up to three satellites.
Source: AST SpaceMobile website
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Avellan also said on the call:
“We showcased Canada’s first successful space-based direct-to-cell voice-over LTE call, video call, and other broadband data and video streaming activations. We believe Canada will represent another attractive market for our direct-to-device cellular broadband service. Space-based cellular broadband connectivity is an industry that we invented, and a recent technology milestone with Verizon and Bell follows several breakthroughs using our direct-to-device technology, including the first-ever 4G and 5G voice calls, voice-over LTE calls, live video calls, streaming, full internet access, and tactical non-terrestrial network connectivity for military and defense purposes, from space to modified smartphones.”
“Our direct-to-device cellular broadband network will help our partners deliver on one of their highest priorities, which is extending connectivity for their customers as part of our effort to deliver on those priorities. We are advancing partners and ecosystem network integration as we progress towards service activation in key partner markets.”
AST has ramped up manufacturing capacity so that it will produce six satellites per month from December, adding that these are “the largest satellites ever launched” into low Earth orbit (LEO). “We’re breaking a world record every time that we take a satellite out of the factory,” Avellan said.
The AST CEO is “very confident in the launch campaign.” The company has built 19 satellites so far and will have built 40 by around the end of March next year. “That matches very well with the launches that we had already financially committed and are in the manifest of our launch partners to take them,” Avellan added.
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It should be noted that T-Mobile US started offering Starlink-based D2D services (called T-Satellite) in July this year. Therefore, AT&T and Verizon D2D services with AST will be many months behind their arch rival.
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Andy Johnson, AST’s chief financial officer, described the company’s performance in 2025 as a time of “rapid growth” as it gets closer to its ambition to build its broadband satellite constellation. “The transition from an emerging R&D-focused startup to an operating company on the path to optimizing our manufacturing and launch cadence has been hard yet invigorating and gratifying work for our now nearly 1,800-person worldwide workforce,” he added.
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References:
https://investors.ast-science.com/quarterly-results
https://ast-science.com/spacemobile-network/our-technology/
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Amazon to Spend Billions on 38 Space Launches for Project Kuiper
Amazon.com has signed contracts with Arianespace, Blue Origin, and United Launch Alliance to launch satellites for Project Kuiper – its planned constellation of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites which will deliver high speed Internet service. The contracts cover up to 83 launches over a five-year period, providing capacity for the majority of the 3,236-satellite constellation planned.
Amazon claims it is the largest commercial procurement of launch vehicles in history. With 18 launches on the new Ariane 6 rocket in the initial agreement, it is also the largest contract ever for Arianespace.
One year ago, Amazon entered an agreement with United Launch Alliance (ULA) to secure nine Atlas V launch vehicles to support its Project Kuiper satellite fleet. The new ULA deal covers 38 launches on the Vulcan Centaur. [ULA is owned by Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp].
Jeff Bezos owned Blue Origin will provide 12 launches using New Glenn, with options for up to 15 more. The French company Arianespace SAS is expected to conduct 18 launches.
Amazon said the use of multiple launch providers will reduce risk and lower costs, with the large, heavy-lift rockets able to send multiple satellites into space at once. It confirmed plans for a first prototype launch mission later this year, and said it has over 1,000 staff working on the satellites project.
However, Amazon’s new planned launches depend on larger rockets still under development that must show they can fly as expected. The launch companies hired to take Project Kuiper’s satellites into orbit have faced delays in developing those rockets.
In addition, Amazon is working with Beyond Gravity (formerly RUAG Space), a Switzerland-headquartered space technology provider, to build low-cost, scalable satellite dispensers that will help deploy the Project Kuiper constellation. Beyond Gravity is opening a new production facility as a result of the partnership, doubling its production capacity in Linkoping, Sweden.
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SpaceX’s Starlink internet service has 250,000 subscribers, an executive said at a recent industry event, and has launched more than 1,900 satellites in what it calls its first-generation satellite system, according to a January regulatory filing.
SpaceX said in the filing that it has been making improvements to its Starlink satellites and to Starship, the large rocket SpaceX wants to use for Starlink deployments and other missions.
In 2020, the Federal Communications Commission authorized Project Kuiper to deploy 3,236 broadband satellites, according to a FCC filing. The agency required at least half to be operational by July 2026, or else Project Kuiper could lose the right to send up some satellites. The new launches the Amazon business bought would provide capacity to deploy most of the satellites the FCC allowed, according to the company.
Dave Limp, senior vice president at Amazon for devices and services, declined to specify how much the company would spend on the planned launches, but said the total outlay was in the billions. Project Kuiper bought the launches because of the 2026 deadline, and also as the unit has passed milestones for developing the business, he said.
Project Kuiper hired Blue Origin, the space company founded by Jeff Bezos, the former Amazon chief executive who serves as executive chair on the e-commerce company’s board, to conduct a dozen launches, along with options for another 15.
Jarrett Jones, a Blue Origin senior vice president for the New Glenn rocket, said the company plans to deliver engines to United Launch soon and is working to have four reusable New Glenn boosters by a 2025 time frame.
“Between these three providers, they all have obviously some risk associated with them and we’ve inspected that closely,” said Amazon’s David Limp. “We feel like they’re all on track.”
Project Kuiper has been working on deals for its planned service. An agreement it struck last year with Verizon Communications Inc. included providing satellite links meant to extend certain Verizon networks to reach rural and remote areas in the U.S. SpaceX’s Starlink has signed a similar deal with a Japanese telecom provider.
Starlink has a head start on Project Kuiper, according to satellite-industry analyst Chris Quilty of Quilty Analytics, but he said the Amazon business has the benefit of observing the challenges of the market leader. Kuiper hassn’t sent up any satellites yet, though it has said it will have two prototypes launched this year.
Amazon’s Mr. Limp said there is room for more than one satellite-broadband winner, in part because of the number of unconnected and underserved people around the world.
United Launch Chief Executive Tory Bruno said his company would launch Vulcan Centaur rockets for a national-security customer before Project Kuiper flights. “That pressure is already in place,” he said.
References:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/05/tech/amazon-satellite-internet-kuiper-launch-deal-scn/index.html
