{"id":45522,"date":"2026-04-20T08:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T07:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?p=45522"},"modified":"2026-04-20T08:31:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T07:31:54","slug":"setback-for-vodafone-uks-ast-space-mobile-plan-as-satellite-launch-fails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/setback-for-vodafone-uks-ast-space-mobile-plan-as-satellite-launch-fails.html","title":{"rendered":"Setback for Vodafone UK and AST Space Mobile Plan as Satellite Launch Fails"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The joint plan by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/go\/vodafoneuk\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Vodafone<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/ast-science.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AST SpaceMobile<\/a> (aka &#8211;<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.satelliteconnecteurope.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Satellite Connect Europe<\/a><\/strong>) to launch a space-based <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/4g\">4G<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/5g\">5G<\/a> mobile (mobile broadband) service \u2013 that will connect with regular Smartphones \u2013 has suffered a setback, which occurred after Sunday&#8217;s orbital launch of a BlueBird 7 spacecraft on the New Glenn rocket ended up placing the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/satellite\">satellite<\/a> into the wrong orbit.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Just for some background. AST previously conducted trials of a prototype 1.5-ton <strong>BlueWalker 3<\/strong> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2023\/09\/vodafone-backed-ast-space-mobile-make-first-5g-call-via-satellite.html\">here<\/a>) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/satellite\">satellite<\/a> that orbits at an altitude of a little over 500km and features a huge 693-square-foot (64.4-square-meter) phased array antenna (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2022\/11\/vodafone-backed-ast-space-mobile-begin-testing-4g-and-5g-satellite.html\">here<\/a>). The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/satellite\">satellite<\/a> was specifically designed for sending and receiving mobile signals between the space-based platform and regular mobile handsets \u2013 <strong>Direct-to-Device<\/strong> (DtD).<\/p>\n<div class=\"bq2\"><strong>NOTE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/go\/vodafoneuk\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Vodafone<\/a>&#8217;s satellite mobile service in the UK will use a portion of the 900MHz spectrum band to deliver its connectivity to the ground. AST has previously demoed download speeds of 20Mbps+ to regular unmodified mobile phones on a 5MHz channel (enough for text, voice and limited data services). But the next gen satellites will enable peak data of 120Mbps.<\/div>\n<p>The company is now in the process of launching a total of 100 similar satellites (<strong>BlueBirds<\/strong>) over the next few years (future models are 3.5 times bigger and more capable). AST already has about <a href=\"https:\/\/planet4589.org\/space\/con\/asts\/stats.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">6 active satellites<\/a> in a <strong>Low Earth Orbit<\/strong> (LEO) and they\u2019re aiming to reach 45\u201360 satellites launched by the end of 2026, which should be enough to deliver continuous coverage across the USA and select markets like the UK.<\/p>\n<p>The seventh satellite was due to join those yesterday via the third mission of Blue Origin&#8217;s <strong>New Glenn<\/strong> rocket (NG-3), which incidentally was successful in landing its main booster stage (SpaceX style) post-launch for possible future re-use. But the upper stage of their rocket ended up releasing the satellite into the wrong orbit, and it cannot be saved.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"bq1\"><p><strong>Statement by AST SpaceMobile<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>During the New Glenn 3 mission, BlueBird 7 was placed into a lower than planned orbit by the upper stage of the launch vehicle. While the satellite separated from the launch vehicle and powered on, the altitude is too low to sustain operations with its on-board thruster technology and will de-orbited. The cost of the satellite is expected to be recovered under the company\u2019s insurance policy.<\/p>\n<p>BlueBird 7 would have been AST SpaceMobile\u2019s eighth deployed into low Earth orbit and is one of many planned for its space-based cellular broadband network. The company is currently in production through BlueBird 32, with BlueBird 8 to 10 expected to be ready to ship in approximately 30 days.<\/p>\n<p>The company continues to expect an orbital launch every one to two months on average during 2026, supported by agreements with multiple launch providers, and it continues to target approximately 45 satellites in orbit by the end of 2026.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>One possible difficultly with the above expectation is that Blue Origin may now have to ground its rocket for an extended period while they analyse what went wrong with the upper stage. The issue won&#8217;t affect any launches that AST may have had planned with other rocket companies, but it could still have a delaying impact on some of their targets (they had planned a lot of fairly rapid launches on New Glenn).<\/p>\n<p>We suspect <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/go\/vodafoneuk\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Vodafone<\/a> may still be able to launch its first <em>trial<\/em> services with customers sometime this Summer as planned or possibly later this year (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/03\/vodafonethree-to-start-uk-trials-of-satellite-mobile-service-in-summer-2026.html\">here<\/a>), although achieving a full commercial launch now seems likely to be pushed back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The joint plan by Vodafone and AST SpaceMobile (aka &#8211; Satellite Connect Europe) to launch a space-based 4G and 5G mobile (mobile broadband) service \u2013 that will connect with regular Smartphones \u2013 has suffered a setback, which occurred after Sunday&#8217;s orbital launch of a BlueBird 7 spacecraft on the New Glenn rocket ended up placing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[61,406,60,77,63,96,2721],"class_list":["post-45522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk_isp_news","tag-4g","tag-5g","tag-mobile-broadband","tag-satellite","tag-three-uk","tag-vodafone","tag-vodafonethree"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@ispreview\/116435857880828572","error":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - 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