AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) shares edged lower in Friday afternoon trading despite the company announcing a key milestone in its satellite deployment program.
BlueBird 11 has arrived at Cape Canaveral, Florida, ahead of its planned first-half August orbital launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The satellite communications company confirmed the development in a post on X, noting that additional spacecraft are also closing in on the launch site.
“BlueBird 11 arrives at Cape Canaveral. BlueBirds 12 and 13 will be following shortly. Next stop, orbital launch in the first half of August,” the company said.
AST SpaceMobile described the milestone as “execution in motion,” emphasizing that all three satellites were manufactured in Texas as part of its broader broadband expansion strategy.
The upcoming mission will build on the successful June 2026 deployment of BlueBirds 8, 9, and 10, which are already operating in low Earth orbit.
BlueBirds 11, 12, and 13 feature 2,400-square-foot communications arrays and are expected to deliver nearly twice the peak data speeds of the company’s first-generation Block 1 BlueBird satellites.
The Block 1 satellites recently achieved download speeds of 98.9 Mbps delivered directly to standard, unmodified smartphones, setting a benchmark the next generation is designed to surpass.
AST SpaceMobile’s network is engineered to provide voice, data, and video services directly to everyday smartphones without requiring specialized hardware or modifications.
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for ASTS was rated “bearish” with message volume described as “low” at the time of reporting, though one user struck an optimistic tone.
That user shared a screenshot of the X post announcing BlueBird 11’s arrival and wrote, “Let’s shoot to $100 next week.”
ASTS shares were down approximately 0.45% on the session, though the stock has still gained around 4% on a year-to-date basis heading into the summer launch window.
