SpaceX launches 3 huge BlueBird direct-to-cell satellites from Florida

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SpaceX launched three giant direct-to-cell satellites from Florida's Space Coast this morning (June 17).

A Falcon 9 rocket topped with three of AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today at 2:39 a.m. EDT (0639 GMT).

The rocket's first stage returned to Earth about 8.5 minutes later, touching down in the Atlantic Ocean on the SpaceX drone ship "A Shortfall of Gravitas." It was the 29th launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description.

If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9's upper stage will deploy the three BlueBirds over a 10.5-minute span beginning about 54.5 minutes after launch.

AST SpaceMobile is building a constellation in low Earth orbit (LEO) that beams internet service directly to cell phones. Before today, the company had launched seven spacecraft, most recently on April 19, when BlueBird 7 took to the skies on the third-ever flight of Blue Origin's powerful New Glenn rocket.

Things didn't go according to plan that day, however: New Glenn deployed BlueBird 7 in the wrong orbit after suffering an anomaly, and the satellite was lost.

BlueBird 7 was the second of AST SpaceMobile's "next-generation" spacecraft to launch, after BlueBird 6, which reached LEO successfully atop an Indian LVM3 rocket in December 2025.

The next-gen satellites have antennas that cover nearly 2,400 square feet (223 square meters) when unfurled — larger than any other commercial communications arrays ever deployed in space. (The original BlueBirds were no slouches in this department; their arrays covered 693 square feet, or 64.4 square meters).

Today's liftoff sent BlueBird 8, BlueBird 9 and BlueBird 10 aloft, quadrupling the number of next-gen satellites in LEO.

"Our upcoming launch marks another important milestone as we continue advancing the deployment of our space-based cellular broadband network," Scott Wisniewski, president of AST SpaceMobile, said in a June 9 statement.

"Each BlueBird satellite launched expands our ability to support seamless space-based broadband mobile connectivity directly to everyday smartphones," he added.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 2:50 a.m. ET on June 17 with news of successful launch and rocket landing.