ISRO Successfully Launches Heaviest Satellite for AST SpaceMobile's Global Broadband Network

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) achieved a significant technological and commercial milestone with the successful deployment of AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird 6 satellite on December 24, 2025. The mission utilized the LVM3-M6 launch vehicle, which lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 10:25 p.m. EST on December 23. This launch was executed under a commercial agreement facilitated by NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL), ISRO's commercial arm, with the US-based AST SpaceMobile, Inc., headquartered in Midland, Texas.

BlueBird 6 is notable as the heaviest satellite ever launched from Indian territory on an indigenous launcher, carrying a mass of approximately 6,100 kilograms, or 13,450 pounds. This next-generation BlueBird Block-2 spacecraft was successfully placed into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at an altitude of around 520 kilometers, approximately 15.5 minutes after liftoff. The LVM3 rocket, India's most powerful vehicle at 43.5 meters tall, maintains a one hundred percent success rate across its missions to date. According to ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan, this flight elevates India's total count of launched satellites for international entities to 434 across 34 different nations.

The technological advancement represented by BlueBird 6 is substantial, featuring the largest commercial communications antenna ever deployed in LEO. This array spans nearly 2,400 square feet, equivalent to 223 square meters, upon full unfolding, making it 3.5 times larger than the arrays on the previous BlueBird satellites (1-5). Furthermore, the spacecraft incorporates proprietary AST5000 application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) designed to manage 10 gigahertz (GHz) of processing bandwidth, targeting peak data rates up to 120 megabits per second (Mbps) per coverage cell. This capability is central to AST SpaceMobile's objective of delivering ubiquitous cellular broadband connectivity directly to standard, unmodified mobile phones worldwide.

AST SpaceMobile, founded by Abel Avellan, is pursuing a multi-provider launch strategy that includes both ISRO's LVM3 and SpaceX and Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket to mitigate deployment risks. The company is targeting an aggressive launch cadence of every one to two months throughout 2026 to support its global service rollout. The New Glenn vehicle is projected to potentially carry up to eight Block 2 BlueBirds per launch, effectively doubling the cadence achievable with the Falcon 9. This multi-pronged approach positions the company to deploy between 45 to 60 satellites by the end of 2026, enabling full text, voice, and 5G data services in initial markets such as the United States.

This successful deployment underscores the increasing commercial reliance on India's launch infrastructure. Between January 2015 and December 2024, ISRO launched 393 foreign satellites, generating approximately $439 million in revenue from these payloads over that decade. BlueBird 6 marks the first launch of the next-generation Block-2 series, with BlueBird 7 slated for an early 2026 launch, and subsequent units currently in assembly or testing phases. The successful integration and launch of this heavy Block-2 unit by the LVM3 validates the platform's heavy-lift capacity and reinforces the strategic commercial partnership between ISRO and global innovators.