The dawn of outrageously large satellites has arrived, protecting our visions of the glittering universe. Five major communications satellites have recently been launched into Earth orbit, and this is just the beginning of a constellation of Texas cell phone towers in space.
AST SpaceMobile announced today that its first five satellites, BlueBirds 1 through 5, have launched to their full size in space. Each satellite unveiled the largest commercial communications array ever deployed in low Earth orbit, covering 693 square feet (64 square meters) at launch. That’s bad news for astronomers as massive arrays pass over many objects in the night sky, blocking the view of the universe around us.
Things are still in the early stages of AST SpaceMobile’s implementation, however, as the company wants to build the first space-based cellular network that is directly accessible by cell phone. “The launch of our first five BlueBird satellites marks just the beginning of our journey,” said Abel Avellan, founder and CEO of AST SpaceMobile, in a statement. “Our team is already hard at work building the next generation of satellites, which will provide ten times the capacity of our current BlueBirds, continue to revolutionize mobile communications and bring even greater benefits to our customers and partners around the world.”
In September 2023, the Texas company made the first 5G call between a prototype satellite and the Samsung Galaxy S22. Satellite arrays connect directly to standard smartphones at broadband speeds, but that innovation comes at a price.
The company’s prototype satellite revealed its largest array in late 2022, highlighting many objects in the sky other than the Moon, Venus, Jupiter, and the seven brightest stars. BlueWalker 3 was seen as bright as two of the ten brightest stars in the night sky, Procyon and Achernar, through different telescope lenses, according to the The environment a study published in October 2023. Before opening its array, the satellite had a magnitude of around +3.5, making it visible to the naked eye. However, after removing its antenna array, its brightness increased by about two magnitudes.
Unfortunately, now there are five more of them. AST SpaceMobile launched its five BlueBird satellites on September 12, seeking to build a constellation of more than 100 satellites in low Earth orbit to provide the entire US.
The latest constellation is an indication of a worrying problem in terms of compressing the Earth’s orbit, with the number of large satellites increasing fivefold in the last 12 years, according to a letter sent by a group of space experts to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) .
“Top university experts warn that we are in a shorter window of time to prevent the waste of our environment and air than to spend decades cleaning it up,” Lucas Gutterman, director of the US PIRG Education Fund’s Designed to Last. Campaign, said in the letter. “The new space race doesn’t need to waste a lot of space.”
The letter asks the FCC to follow the recommendations of the US Government Office and stop exempting satellites from environmental review. AST SpaceMobile isn’t the only company trying to build cell towers in space. SpaceX is building its own constellation of satellites, with more than 6,000 Starlink satellites currently in low Earth orbit. Amazon, OneWeb, and Lynk Global are other companies trying to get in on the action.
Those satellites, however, have a significant impact that cannot be ignored. “Artificial satellites, even those invisible to the naked eye, can block observations of stars that help detect asteroids and understand our place in the universe,” said Robert McMillan, professor of astronomy and founder of the Spacewatch Project at the University of Arizona. a book.
The letter continues, “This is a new frontier, and we must save ourselves a lot of trouble by making sure we move forward in a way that won’t cause major problems for our future.”
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