Ready to launch BlueBird Block-2 satellite on December 24: ISRO

New Delhi, Dec 22
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday said it is ready to launch the BlueBird Block-2 satellite on December 24.

The launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Center will place the BlueBird Block-2 satellite, also referred to as BlueBird-6, in Low Earth Orbit.

BlueBird communications satellite, developed by the US-based AST SpaceMobile, will be launched on board India’s most powerful rocket LVM3.

It is one of the heaviest commercial satellites, weighing 6.5 tonnes. The Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite arrived in India from the US on October 19.

“Meet #LVM3M6 ISRO’s operational heavy-lift launch vehicle with a proven record of reliable missions. Ready to deliver BlueBird Block-2 to Low Earth Orbit,” ISRO shared in a post on the social media platform X.

Earlier, AST SpaceMobile, in a statement, said that “when launched, it will feature the largest commercial phased array in low Earth orbit at nearly 2,400 square feet. This represents a 3.5 times increase in size over BlueBirds 1-5 and supports 10 times the data capacity”.

This is the second collaboration between the US and ISRO. In July, the ISRO successfully launched the $1.5 billion NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar Mission (NISAR), aimed at taking high-resolution Earth scans with a capacity to penetrate through fogs, dense clouds, and ice layers.

AST SpaceMobile has already launched five satellites -- BlueBird 1 to 5 -- in September 2024. With an aim to expand this network further, the company has partnered with more than 50 mobile operators worldwide.

Meanwhile, as per ISRO BlueBird 6's liftoff, it is being handled by its commercial wing, the New Space India Limited (NSIL).

LVM3, developed by ISRO, is a three-stage launch vehicle comprising two solid strap-on motors (S200), a liquid core stage (L110), and a cryogenic upper stage (C25).

“It has a lift-off mass of 640 tonnes, a height of 43.5 m, and a payload capability of 4,200 kg to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO),” ISRO said.

LVM-3 had recently put India’s heaviest CMS-3 satellite, weighing 4.4 tonnes, into its orbit on November 2.

In its earlier missions, LVM3 successfully launched Chandrayaan-2, Chandrayaan-3, and two OneWeb missions carrying 72 satellites.