US-licensed satellite to launch on Isro’s LVM-3 rocket next month

The BlueBird 6 satellite, designed for LEO, will launch on December 15 via Isro's LVM-3 rocket, aiming to provide global smartphone connectivity from space.

Published on: Nov 23, 2025, 05:34:18 IST

By Snehal Fernandes, Mumbai

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The US-licensed BlueBird 6 satellite, among the world’s heaviest commercial communications satellite designed for Low Earth Orbit (LEO), is scheduled to launch on Isro’s LVM-3 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, on December 15, according a statement from telecom company AST SpaceMobile.

ISRO chairperson V Narayanan had said last month that BlueBird 6 satellite would be launched in the second week of December. (DRDO)

Manufactured at AST SpaceMobile’s headquarters in Midland, Texas, the 6,500kg satellite is the first of the firm’s next generation satellites. “Our next-generation satellites will soon enable ubiquitous cellular broadband coverage direct to everyday smartphones from space,” said Abel Avellan, founder, chairman and CEO of AST SpaceMobile in a media statement on Friday.

On October 1, a social media post by AST SpaceMobile said that BlueBird 6 has completed final assembly and testing and is ready for flight. “On October 12, it will head to India aboard an Antonov large cargo plane,” it had said.

When launched, it will feature the largest commercial phased array in LEO at nearly 2,400 square feet –– a 3.5 times increase in size over previous iterations of BlueBirds and supports 10 times the data capacity, according to AST SpaceMobile.

While Isro has yet to make an announcement on the launch, its chairperson V Narayanan had said last month that BlueBird 6 satellite would be launched in the second week of December.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Snehal Fernandes
Snehal Fernandes is senior associate editor, who joined HT in 2006. She heads the Mumbai edition’s city reporting team that writes on civic and urban governance, transport and infrastructure, health, and education. She is also the National Science Editor. With a career spanning more than two decades, her expertise lies in writing on science and technology, space, environment, sustainable development, climate change, and nuclear energy. Her work consistently breaks down, and without oversimplyfying, science and research developments into an easy read for a broad audience. In 2009, she was among the very first journalist to report on the opposition to the Jaitapur nuclear power plant in Ratnagiri (Konkan) following the Indo- US civil nuclear agreement and consistently followed it with multiple stories from ground zero; wrote about the introduction and subsequent halt to the cultivation of genetically modified (BT) brinjal, and has interviewed Nobel laureates and award winning scientists. In 2012, she was awarded ‘The Press Club Award for Excellence in Journalism’ (Political category) for reports on the mining scam in Goa. Prior to HT, she wrote on education and transport at the Indian Express. She graduated in sociology from St Xavier's College, and firmly believes in the phrase by Karl Marx that ‘Religion is the opium of the people’. When she is not keeping a tab on the going-ons in Mumbai and the scientific world, you'll find her reading world news, or watching crime/espionage series or political dramas. She can repeatedly watch Kill Bill with the same interest as Planet of the Apes and Spiderman. For someone who was not remotely interested in dogs or cats, she loves every bit of her time with her two-year-old Indie cat Bunny.Read More

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