Space
AST SpaceMobile Buys Launches From Blue Origin, SpaceX
- Texas company also plans to work with India’s space agency
- As many as 60 satellites expected to launch in next two years
A Blue Origin capsule in Van Horn, Texas.
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
AST SpaceMobile Inc., which aims to challenge Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the nascent market for space-based cellular service to mobile phones, has signed contracts with SpaceX and Jeff Bezos-founded Blue Origin to launch dozens of its satellites into orbit.
The Midland, Texas-based company will use Blue Origin’s forthcoming New Glenn and SpaceX’s Falcon 9 to loft as many as 60 of its Block 2 satellites to low-Earth orbit over the next two years, the company said on Thursday.