AST SpaceMobile Launches Its Most Powerful Direct-to-Cell Satellite Yet

Fifteen months after seeing its first five commercial mobile-broadband satellites reach orbit, AST SpaceMobile now has a sixth circling the Earth.

The first of the company’s second-generation BlueBird Block 2 satellites lifted off at 10:25 p.m. EST Tuesday from India’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre atop an LVM3 (Launch Vehicle Mark III) rocket. About 15 minutes later, mission controllers confirmed the satellite’s deployment into a 323-mile-high orbit from the upper stage of that…