AST SpaceMobile loses BlueBird #7
April 20, 2026
By Chris Forrester
Would-be global direct-to-consumer cellular supplier AST SpaceMobile lost its seventh BlueBird satellite on April 19th following a launch on a Jeff Bezos-backed rocket.
The satellite was insured for $30 million (€25.5m), but that compensation will not help the very damaged reputation of AST (and the Bezos rocket company). AST’s shares fell more than 15 per cent in trading on April 19th (a decline of $12.54 to $72.99).
The Bezos rocket, a Blue Origin New Glenn variant, was using a booster that had been flown before. There was no problem with the booster which, a few minutes after launch, successfully landed on a barge floating on the Atlantic Ocean.
The problem was with the upper stage which reportedly failed to fire its engine correctly which resulted in the satellite being stranded in a low orbit (‘non-nominal’) that was too far from its intended location. The satellite was not carrying sufficient fuel to enable a repositioning under its own power.
BlueBird 7 was the second of AST’s ‘Block 2’ satellite in the internet constellation of Texas-based company AST SpaceMobile. Its predecessor, BlueBird 6, launched on an Indian LVM3 rocket last December. BlueBird 6 is one of the largest satellites in space, with an antenna that spans 2,400 square feet (223 square meters). BlueBird 7 had the same dimensions.
It should have been placed into a circular orbit of 460 kms, but instead was left in a highly elliptical orbit of 154 x 494 kms, and is thus unusable.
However, the failure has brought AST itself under close inspection. It frequently makes promises on delivery dates and expectations – and misses them. This is not considered acceptable for a publicly-quoted business. The failure will also force Blue Origin to look again at its rocket’s performance and this post-launch investigation could last months, not weeks. A post-launch review will then need to be submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration for comments/approval.
AST said in its post-launch statement that it “continues to target approximately 45 satellites” in orbit this year. “The company is currently in production through BlueBird 32, with BlueBird 8-10 expected to ship in approximately 30 days,” AST said in its statement, adding that it expects “an orbital launch every one or two months on average during 2026”.
AST’s next planned launches will probably be on SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets.
There are reports – unconfirmed – that AST will need to modify future satellites, adding more fuel for in-orbit positioning which will also take time, and engineering skills. There is also talk of AST adding an extra electrical thruster to the satellite’s configuration.
The final industry complani is that AST #7 must now be deorbited and that means passing through other company’s orbits.
The official post-launch statement from AST read: “Unfortunately, the on-board propulsion capability of BB-7 is not sufficient to boost it into a suitable orbit, so rather than allow the current orbit to decay unpredictably the satellite will be deorbited deliberately in a controlled manner”.
Other posts by :