Midland, TX-based AST SpaceMobile ($ASTS) is looking ahead to the expected summer launch of BlueWalker 3 (BW3) with SpaceX.
BW3, a 1.5-ton, 693-square-foot phased array beast, will be a testbed for the company’s space-based cellular broadband network technology. Bet the farm moment?
- In May, the FCC granted AST SpaceMobile an experimental license to test space-to-ground transmissions between BW3 and unmodified smartphones.
- As of March 31, AST SpaceMobile had invested $82.7M into testing and building BlueWalker 3. The satellite has undergone 700+ tests.
- The company plans to scale production to a second, 100,000-sq-ft. facility in Texas. It’s targeting a production rate of six satellites per month.
Q1 business updates
AST SpaceMobile booked $2.4M in revenue and burned through nearly $70M in Q1, ending the quarter with $255M in cash/equivalents. Operating expenses increased $1.4M quarter-on-quarter to $32.7M.
- Earlier this month, AST SpaceMobile announced a deal to sell more stock and raise $75M.
- Apropos of nothing…Yesterday’s $ASTS earnings call had some fresh analyst faces (at least compared to the last one Payload tuned into).
+ Market data snapshot: $ASTS is down ~12% YTD. The company is valued at $1.3B.
