Spacemobile has a successful satellite launch

MIDLAND, Texas (KOSA) - AST is building the first and only space-based cellular broadband network to be accessible by standard smartphones, and they’re calling it Spacemobile.

This Saturday, the company had its first satellite launch, and it was successful.

This ultra-powerful network is being designed to provide connectivity at 4g/5g speeds everywhere on the planet whether that be on land, at sea, or in flight.

Scott Wisniewski, chief strategy officer for AST, spoke to CBS7 saying, “so, this is a test satellite and it’s the first of its kind so will be taking it slow and steady at first to make sure that we don’t have any issues”

Spacemobile in Midland has been around since 2017, and since the company launched its mission has been to ensure that the over 5 billion people on the planet who use a cell phone never lose internet access and bring fast cellular broadband to approximately half of the world’s population, who are not always guaranteed connectivity.

After a successful launch... the satellite is now 300 miles from the earth’s surface and the testing timeline is on track.

Wisniewski continued by saying, “job one was to make contact with it and we are able to do that when it crosses Australia and then New Zealand thereafter from there we put the satellite into a thermal roll which basically means we stabilize it’s a rotation such that the solar panels on the basin satellite are always pointing towards the sun and that’s allowing us to recharge a satellite.”

Now that engineers have made contact with the satellite, they’re checking power and temperatures and going through systems checks.

Once that is completed the satellite will unfold into its shape and AST can start testing calls.

“with any hope this year we’ll be making broadband calls directly from the satellite.”

AST is testing in both Texas and Hawaii with two locations in Midland.

Wisnewski says that they hope to have Blue Walker 3 fully running within the next two weeks.

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