Starlink Rival Launches Its Largest Satellite Yet for Space-Based Cellular Network

Texas startup AST SpaceMobile launched BlueBird 6, the first of its next-generation satellites, this week—and boy was it a big one. BlueBird 6 is roughly three times larger than its predecessors and the biggest commercial satellite in Earth orbit.

BlueBird 6 lifted off on board India’s LVM3 rocket on December 23 at 10:25 p.m. ET from the Satish Dhawan Space Center. The satellite is the first of AST SpaceMobile’s next-generation constellation, which aims to create the first…