Watch Indian rocket launch record-breaking BlueBird 6 smartphone satellite to orbit tonight
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Credit: ISRO
An Indian rocket is set to launch the record-breaking BlueBird 6 smartphone satellite this evening (December 23), and you’ll be able to watch the action live.
BlueBird 6, built by a Texas company AST SpaceMobilewill take off at the top of a LVM3 rocket from India’s Satish Dhawan Space Center this evening at 10:24 p.m. EST (03:34 GMT and 8:54 a.m. Indian Standard Time on December 24), if all goes according to plan.
You can watch it live here on Space.com courtesy of AST SpaceMobile or directly through the company. Coverage will begin approximately 30 minutes before launch.
An Indian LVM3 rocket on the platform before the planned December 23, 2025 launch of the BlueBird 6 satellite for AST SpaceMobile. | Credit: ISRO
AST SpaceMobile is building a constellation of satellites in low earth orbit (LEO) which transmit broadband service directly to standard smartphones on the ground.
The company has launched five operational satellites to date, all on board a single EspaceX Falcon 9 rocket in September 2024. These spacecraft, BlueBirds 1 through 5, have 693 square feet (64.4 square meters) of communications arrays, the largest ever deployed in LEO.
BlueBird 6 will beat this record, and by a good margin. This is AST SpaceMobile’s first next-generation BlueBird, with bays each covering nearly 2,400 square feet (223 square meters).
Tonight’s liftoff will be the ninth overall for the three-stage, 43.5m-tall LVM3, which is India’s most powerful rocket. It began in December 2014 and to date has a 100% success rate.
BlueBird 6, which tips the scales at around 13,450 pounds (6,100 kilograms), will be the heaviest payload LVM3 has ever carried to LEO, according to THE Indian Space Research Organization.
