WASHINGTON, Aug. 7, 2026 – AST SpaceMobile successfully launched three more of its massive BlueBird satellites on Wednesday, for a new total of 13 in orbit. The three launched Wednesday are larger than the company’s initial five satellites, AST said in a release, and can support higher mobile broadband speeds. The company is working to offer a direct-to-device mobile service that would compete with planned constellations from SpaceX and Amazon. New Glenn was one of the launch vehicles AST was relying on to get its huge BlueBird satellites in orbit. Iridium already had satellites and valuable direct-to-device spectrum, which would have been difficult for the rocket company to build and acquire itself.