A company that builds what is believed to be the only satellite mobile network has signed a multiple launch deal with Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX.
Texas based AST SpaceMobileBased in the UK in new Space Park Leicester, it has reached an agreement with rocket company co-founder Tesla for a planned summer launch of the BlueWalker 3 experimental satellite and the future launch of its BlueBird satellites.
AST SpaceMobile wants to put 170 satellites into low orbit to create a space-based cellular broadband network to serve the 5 billion mobile phone users who lack permanent ground coverage.
Last June in the UK CEO Stephen Gibson told BusinessLive Its satellites can provide an essential mobile signal to parts of the developing world with limited or no wireless and mobile infrastructure, bridging gaps in the developed world where existing mobile phone signals are disrupted.
At the time, Gibson said the group was talking with the next generation of commercial space carriers to find the best deal to get their hardware off Earth.
The company has now revealed that it hopes to launch the BlueWalker 3 satellite – which can communicate directly with mobile phones using standard frequencies – on the SpaceX Falcon 9 spacecraft from Cape Canaveral this summer.
“This agreement ensures the reliable availability of the first production satellites for production outside the United States,” said AST SpaceMobile Founder, President and CEO, Abel Avelan.
“Our summer launch of BlueWalker 3 will complete the development phase of our business.
“We’ve also built our technology and relaunched the BlueBird satellites, and this agreement is an essential step.”
BlueBird satellites are designed to provide high-speed Internet access directly to mobile phones, without any additional hardware or software on the phone.
At full capacity, AST SpaceMobile will be able to assemble up to six Bluebird satellites per month at its manufacturing facilities in Texas.
It collaborates with global wireless infrastructure companies including Rakuten Mobile, Vodafone and American Tower.
