The largest-ever satellite of its kind just unfurled its wings in low-Earth orbit

The largest satellite of its type has just spread its wings in low Earth orbit

By Claire Cameron edited by Jeanna Bryner

The largest communications satellite of its kind took a major step toward operation Tuesday: operator AST SpaceMobile announced that the record-breaking spacecraft, fancifully called BlueBird 6, successfully deployed its enormous antenna.

Spanning some 2,400 square feet (223 square meters), it is the largest commercial communications array antenna ever deployed in low Earth orbit. AST SpaceMobile hopes this will be the first of many: the Texas-based utility already has six small satellites operating in low Earth orbit, and plans to consider many more behemoths like BlueBird 6. Ultimately, these will form a high-speed cellular network aimed specifically at smartphones.

BlueBird 6 is huge. While Starlink satellites are about the size of a large table and have a network that spans about 100 feet, BlueBird 6’s network spans an area a little smaller than that of a doubles tennis court. It’s also very bright, says Peter Plavchan, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at George Mason University, who is not involved in the satellite company.

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“These satellites will be so bright that they will be easily visible to the naked eye,” he says, brighter than Saturn. The presence of so many such bright artificial objects in the sky means that ground-based astronomy, whether professional or amateur, will ultimately be affected, he says.

“The vision of our sky is changing,” says Plavchan. “Even in places where the sky is dark, things are going to be different.”

Samantha Lawler, associate professor of astronomy at the University of Regina, agrees, pointing out that such bright objects will confuse astronomy and much more.

“Having large numbers of these satellites in the sky will be detrimental to astronomy research, devastating to naked-eye observers, and could even cause serious problems for migratory birds and other animals that navigate the stars,” Lawler says.

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