AST SpaceMobile, Inc. ("AST SpaceMobile") (NASDAQ: ASTS), the company building the first and only space-based cellular broadband network accessible directly by everyday smartphones, designed for both commercial and government applications, announced it will build its own 20-ton rocket to deploy its BlueBird satellites in low Earth orbit using Miranda and Vira engines from Firefly Aerospace (NASDAQ: FLY).
The rocket, named Blacklift, will be custom-built by AST SpaceMobile and designed for reusability, enabling up to five BlueBird satellites per launch starting in late 2028. As part of this announcement, AST SpaceMobile has signed an agreement with Firefly to deliver engines for the first three Blacklift rockets, provide engineering services over a three-year period, and will acquire the perpetual license to manufacture the Miranda and vacuum-variant Vira engines. AST SpaceMobile will produce this technology at a new engine manufacturing facility in the United States.
“The Blacklift rocket is the springboard to significantly expand our total addressable market, providing AST SpaceMobile with regular unconstrained access to orbit and providing for most favorable owners’ economics in the industry. This will accelerate our mission to build a new layer of global connectivity, extending connectivity beyond terrestrial networks and helping to bring AI-enabled services wherever people live, work and travel,” said Abel Avellan, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of AST SpaceMobile.
This step completes AST SpaceMobile’s long-held strategy to achieve end-to-end vertical integration. The Blacklift rocket will complement the company’s in-house capability manufacturing the largest phased arrays operating today in low Earth orbit. The custom-built rocket is uniquely designed for simple, mission-specific, repetitive launch to low Earth orbit, using simple, tested fuels and materials and a proven engine architecture with flight heritage and over a decade of development completed.
“This is a bold transformational deal for Firefly, for AST SpaceMobile, and for the space industry,” said Jason Kim, CEO of Firefly Aerospace. “When a company sets out to build its own rocket, the engine is the hardest, highest-stakes decision they make, and AST SpaceMobile has chosen to partner with Firefly for its most powerful rocket engines.”
Firefly’s Miranda engine has performed over 175 hot fire tests for more than 4,200 seconds – the equivalent of approximately 20 full first stage flights – and completed a flight-like test at 110% performance of the 230,000 lbf thrust engine. Firefly is one of a few companies in the United States with a proven liquid engine of this scale, making it a scarcity in the industry. Firefly has demonstrated repeated launch success to orbit with its Alpha rocket completed for U.S. Government and defense customers, and the company is the first and only private company to ever successfully land and operate spacecraft on the Moon.
“The Miranda engine will allow us to leapfrog the traditional five-to-ten-year development cycle as we build Blacklift. With this in-house capability, we will be able to better serve our commercial and government customers, across an expanded total addressable market beyond direct-to-device including USG radar, USG secure communications, IoT, federal emergency, AI edge compute and additional funded networks,” said Scott Wisniewski, President of AST SpaceMobile.
Under the terms of the license agreement, AST SpaceMobile will pay approximately $800 million in upfront consideration, comprised of $400 million in cash and 10 to 14 million shares of Class A Common Stock, as determined by a forward VWAP calculation. Under the terms of the supply and services agreement, AST SpaceMobile will pay $250 million for the delivery of engines for its first three rocket launches and $250 million over a three-year period for engineering support services.
The Blacklift announcement supplements AST SpaceMobile’s contracted multi-partner orbital launch strategy. AST SpaceMobile will continue to use external providers, with agreements now covering in total over 100 BlueBird satellites to be deployed cumulatively between 2027 and 2028. The company also has access to further launches for U.S. Government missions alongside its Defense Priorities and Allocations System (DPAS) rated program.