AST SpaceMobile 自研“黑升”火箭：20 吨可复用，2028 年底首飞遭质疑

Satellite Broadband Wireless News AST SpaceMobile's 'Blacklift' rocket gambit draws skepticism AST SpaceMobile will buy engines and license designs from Firefly to power a new rocket called Blacklift as it looks to wrest more control of launch capacity. AST expects launches to start in late 2028. Analysts call it an 'aspirational' target. Jeff Baumgartner , Senior Editor , Light Reading November 9, 2026 3 Min Read (Source: AST SpaceMobile) AST SpaceMobile is looking to eliminate a key source of uncertainty – getting its "BlueBird" low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites off the ground – by taking launch capacity into its own hands. AST SpaceMobile said Friday that it has sparked a project to build a 20-ton reusable, custom-built rocket called "Blacklift" that will be capable of launching up to five BlueBird satellites starting in "late 2028" – a target that analysts are already questioning. To literally get Blacklift off the ground, AST SpaceMobile said it has signed a deal with Firefly Aerospace to deliver 27 Miranda engines (for the heavy-duty first-stage) and nine "vacuum-variant" Vira engines (for the second-stage to push payloads into orbit) for the first three Blacklift rockets. AST SpaceMobile is also securing a perpetual license to manufacture the Miranda and Vira engines, with plans to produce the technology at a new engine manufacturing facility to be based somewhere in the US. Related: AT&T, Rakuten tout integration with Starlink rival AST SpaceMobile for D2D services Under the license deal, AST SpaceMobile will pay about $800 million upfront ($400 million of cash and 10 million to 14 million shares of stock). On the supply end, AST SpaceMobile said it will pay $250 million for the delivery of engines for its first three rocket launches and $250 million over a three-year period for engineering support services. In a sign to the maturity of its technology and its ability to serve as a workhorse, Firefly said the Miranda engine has performed more than 175 hot-fire tests for more than 4,200 seconds, saying that's equal to about 20 full first-stage flights. 'Regular unconstrained access to orbit' A primary strategic aim is to help AST SpaceMobile become less reliant on launch capacity that's out of the company's control, and to help the company expand beyond the direct-to-device (D2D) market by pursuing other areas such as secure communications, IoT and AI compute. On the D2D side, AT&T recently completed the first call handoff between its terrestrial cellular network and AST's satellite network, with Rakuten Mobile, AST's partner in Japan, nearing the launch of a commercial D2D service. AST SpaceMobile stressed that it will continue to use external launch providers, noting it has agreements covering more than 100 BlueBirds that are slated for deployment between 2027 and 2028. "The Blacklift rocket is the springboard to significantly expand our total addressable market, providing AST SpaceMobile with regular unconstrained access to orbit and providing for most favorable owners' economics in the industry," AST SpaceMobile Chairman and CEO Abel Avellan said in a statement. Related: Starship reaches orbit, releases 26 high-capacity 'V3' Starlink satellites Skepticism about the tight timeline In a research note (registration required), New Street Research analysts called the late 2028 target "aspirational," noting that it typically takes an average of five years from the start of a program to a successful first flight while "AST wants to launch in 2." They point out that "schedules slip," noting that timelines for Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket has been subject to multiple delays, while the first launch of Rocket Lab's Neutron rocket has been delayed until sometime in 2027 . Starship, SpaceX's heavy-duty rocket also has been hit with multiple delays, and achieved orbit for the first time in September . The New Street analysts also point out that Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin represents a "big" external launch partner for AST SpaceMobile, "which puts a lot of eggs in this basket." That thought comes amid reports that Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp told employees last Wednesday that the next flight for the New Glenn will be pushed to January 2027 . New Glenn suffered a setback in May when it exploded during a prelaunch test in Florida and badly damaged the launchpad. About the Author Jeff Baumgartner Senior Editor, Light Reading Jeff Baumgartner is a Senior Editor for Light Reading and is responsible for the day-to-day news coverage and analysis of the cable and video sectors. Follow him on X, LinkedIn and Bluesky . Baumgartner also served as Site Editor for Light Reading Cable from 2007-2013. In between his two stints at Light Reading, he led tech coverage for Multichannel News and was a regular contributor to Broadcasting + Cable. Baumgartner was named to the 2018 class of the Cable TV Pioneers. See more from Jeff Baumgartner Want more Light Reading stories in your Google search results? Add Us Now Subscribe and receive the latest news from the industry. Join 62,000+ members. Yes it's completely free. Sign me up Want more Light Reading stories in your Google search results? OFC Conference and Exhibition Experience OFC. Where the industry goes to learn, showcase technologies, forge partnerships and close deals. 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