By Joey Roulette
WASHINGTON, Nov 6 (Reuters) – Firefly Aerospace will supply core engines for a new rocket under development by satellite communications firm AST SpaceMobile in a $1.3 billion deal, underscoring a push among satellite companies to secure dependable access to space.
The engine deal, announced on Friday, is a key part of new plans by AST SpaceMobile to develop its own rocket named Blacklift as it races to deploy a satellite constellation for global cellular broadband service and wean itself off a reliance on third-party rockets like SpaceX’s Falcon 9.
Firefly will build and supply 27 of its new Miranda engines and 9 in-space Vira engines for the first three Blacklift rockets, per the agreement, which also grants a license to AST to eventually manufacture the engines itself.
Shares of Firefly were up about 18% following the announcement of the deal, while AST SpaceMobile’s stock was up about 1%.
AST said it is targeting late 2028 for the debut launch of Blacklift, an ambitious development timeline. The company said the rocket is “designed for reusability” and can loft up to five of its BlueBird satellites per launch.
Satellite companies have faced difficulty booking rides to space in the past year as major rocket launch companies — like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and, in future, Rocket Lab — increasingly dedicate their mission manifests to their own satellite constellation deployments.
AST said it still plans to use external rockets and has over 100 launch agreements in place as it targets a total deployment of 248 satellites to complete its global broadband network, which is designed to beam service directly to mobile phones.
Roughly a dozen of its BlueBird satellites have launched since 2024 on rockets from SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and the Indian Space Research Organisation. In April, an issue with Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket doomed a BlueBird satellite to a lower-than-planned region of space that led to its deorbital demise days later.
(Reporting by Joey Roulette; Additional reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Joe Bavier)
