AST SpaceMobile and Firefly Aerospace, both based in Texas, have announced a $1.3 billion agreement under which Firefly will license rocket engine technology for a new heavy-lift launch vehicle called Blacklift. AST SpaceMobile hopes to begin flying the rocket in 2028, assuming development proceeds as planned.
The deal, announced on Friday, would give AST SpaceMobile its own launch vehicle to deploy its BlueBird satellites. The company classifies Blacklift as a 20-ton rocket, a category that includes SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan. It says the vehicle will be able to carry five BlueBird satellites per launch. That mirrors SpaceX’s practice of using Falcon 9 mainly for its own Starlink satellites.
Abel Avellan, AST SpaceMobile’s founder, chairman and CEO, said Blacklift would give the company regular, unconstrained access to orbit and improve its economics, supporting its goal of building a global connectivity layer beyond terrestrial networks.
What Firefly is supplying
Firefly said it will deliver 27 Miranda engines and nine vacuum-optimized Vira engines for AST SpaceMobile’s first three rockets. That suggests each Blacklift first stage will use nine Miranda engines, with three Vira engines on the upper stage. By comparison, Firefly’s medium-lift Eclipse rocket, which it is developing with Northrop Grumman, has seven Miranda engines and one Vira.
The agreement also includes a license allowing AST SpaceMobile to manufacture the engines itself in the future.
On the financial terms, AST SpaceMobile will pay $800 million upfront, half in cash and half in Class A Common Stock. It will pay another $250 million for the 36 engines and $250 million over three years for engineering services.
Firefly CEO Jason Kim described the arrangement as beneficial to both sides. He said AST SpaceMobile gains control of its launch schedule, while Firefly receives funding to expand rocket production and help meet strong industry demand for launch vehicles.
Unproven engines, open questions
Neither engine has yet flown on an orbital mission. Firefly says Miranda has gone through more than 175 hot fire tests totaling more than 4,200 seconds. Vira is still in development, though it draws on the Lightning engine that powers the upper stage of Firefly’s Alpha rocket. Firefly’s current public estimate for Eclipse’s first launch is 2027.
Few details about Blacklift itself have been released. Its height, propellant tank sizes and launch site are unknown. AST SpaceMobile has also not explained how it would go from a rendering to a launch in roughly two years. An analysis by Payload Space found that the move from the start of development to a successful first launch has historically taken about six years.
Upcoming opportunities for detail
AST SpaceMobile plans an “unveiling event” in New York City on Thursday, Nov. 12, which may fill in some of those gaps. It may also share information on its third quarter earnings call on Monday, Nov. 9, at 5 p.m. EST (2200 UTC). Firefly will discuss the agreement on its own third quarter call on Tuesday, Nov. 10, also at 5 p.m. EST.
Source: spaceflightnow.com
