AST’s BlueBird FM1 arrives in Chennai
October 20, 2025
By Chris Forrester
Following on from a four-day air-journey on a giant Antonov aircraft ended in being unloaded on October 16th at Chennai airport. The aircraft carried the first of AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird second-generation satellites (FM1). The satellite was then transferred by a simple truck to the Indian ISRO launch site where it will undergo final tests in preparation for launch.
Reports – unconfirmed – from India say that this first satellite could be launched during November. If correct, this is good news for AST as previous gossip had talked about a December or even Q1/2026 launch. India’s Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will use its LVM3 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota to put the satellite into orbit.
Meanwhile, news has emerged from analysts at Deutsche Bank with some forecasts of how they see AST’s overall revenue prospects for the next few years, including 2025.
2025 – $62 Million
2026 – $419 Million
2027 – $1.5 Billion
2028 – $3.1 Billion
2028 – $4.3 Billion
2029 – $5.3 Billion
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