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Satellite designer AST Spacemobile said that he was preparing to deploy nearly five dozen satellites to fuel wide -band networks based on cells, a decision that establishes the company as a dominant SpaceX rival of Elon Musk.
The company, based in Texas, published its profits from the second quarter on Monday after the Bell, reporting that its satellites are fully funded and prepare for deployment with more than $ 1.5 billion on its balance sheet.
Spatial company’s shares increased by more than 10% on news on Tuesday. The stock is up more than 140% of the year for what was a boom for high speed space technology.
“We confirm our entirely funded plan to deploy 45 to 60 orbit satellites by 2026 to support continuous service in the United States, Europe, Japan and other strategic markets, including the US government,” CEO Abel Avellan said in the report. “We also planned orbital launches of every one to two months on average in 2025 and 2026.”
AST Spacemobile currently has six orbit satellites, used for commercial and government applications. The company plans to deploy services in the United States by the end of the year, followed by the United Kingdom, Japan and Canada in the first quarter of 2026.
Avellan added that AST Spacemobile plans to launch satellites every one to two months to reach its goal from 45 to 60 by next year.
With the announcement on Monday, the company joins the growing race to build a wide -band service in space, with notable players SpaceX with more than 8,000 Starlink satellites in orbit. The other rivals of space include Globalstar, supported by Appleand Project Kuiper, supported by Amazon.