According to the latest report, AST SpaceMobile announced a “multi-launch agreement” with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Under the terms of the deal, AST SpaceMobile agreed to pay approximately $23 million to send its BlueBird (BB) satellites into space, as well as “launch reservation fees for future BB launches.”
“This agreement ensures that we can reliably launch the first production satellites outside the United States,” Abel Avellan, CEO of AST SpaceMobile, said in a release.
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Moreover, the company’s announcement comes days after satellite upstart OneWeb ordered employees to leave the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan following a dispute with Russian officials over its satellite launch. The problem stems from the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the fallout from the sanctions issue between Russia and Western countries.
But, according to SpaceNews, OneWeb’s problems are important. Although the company builds the satellite with Airbus in Florida, it uses thrusters imported from Russian propulsion company Fakel. It’s unclear how this situation will affect OneWeb’s ambitions to launch hundreds of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites.
However, Russian officials are increasingly aware of the situation. According to Reuters, Russia plans to stop supplying rockets to U.S. companies.
Collectively, these developments help to highlight the impact the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and its wider geopolitical consequences could have on the burgeoning space-based internet industry.
While satellites have provided global communications services for years, a new crop of established satellite companies and upstarts like OneWeb and AST SpaceMobile hope to make satellites and 5G a more substantial part of the world’s telecommunications fabric.
In fact, Verizon recently described Amazon’s planned Kuiper satellites as another layer of Verizon’s network. “The new layer we’re going to deploy is the satellite layer,” Verizon CTO Kyle Malady said earlier this month.
“Our announcement with Kuiper last year will provide us with additional coverage that complements our ‘Network as a Service strategy. We expect to test Kuiper services in 2023. We think satellite can provide rural broadband, long-distance connectivity, and remote global enterprises to provide extended coverage.”
But if geopolitical tensions continue to rise, such satellite efforts could become more regionalized and country-specific. This is notable considering that Russia has long been a major player in the global satellite industry. After all, about 60 years ago, Russia was the first country to send humans into space.
Importantly, AST SpaceMobile isn’t the only satellite company touting its U.S. launch plans. Lynk Global plans to launch commercial services later this year. Lynk is preparing to launch its sixth satellite in April, also via SpaceX in the US.
Meanwhile, Globalstar recently announced an agreement with MDA and Rocket Lab to build 17 new satellites. Separately, Inmarsat recently said it plans to launch new satellites through SpaceX.
