It was SpaceX's 41st launch of 2022 and set more than one new record for the company.
While SpaceX's primary goal for Saturday's launch was to add 34 new Starlinkto its growing constellation in orbit, AST SpaceMobile's BlueWalker 3 satellite stood out for both its size and ambitious mission.
"The reason why our satellite is large is because in order to communicate with a low-power, low internal strength phone, you just need a large antenna on one side with a lot of power, and so that's a critical part of our infrastructure," AST SpaceMobile Chief Strategy Officer Scott Wisniewski told Space.com in an interview."We think that's really important for communicating directly with regulars handsets, with no change to the handset, with no extra burdens on the user.
AST SpaceMobile has partnered with 25 cellular service providers, 10 of which will participate in the company's planned six-month shakedown cruise of BlueWalker 3 to test its capabilities across six continents around the world. Those partners include providers like Vodaphone, Rakuten Mobile and Orange, and a potential reach of 1.8 million phone users, Wisniewski said.
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