Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket is scheduled to launch this weekend with a reusable first-stage booster, testing cost-effective booster reuse that could challenge SpaceX's Falcon 9 dominance. The mission carries AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird 7 satellite, featuring a 2,400-square-foot phased-array antenna designed to deliver 4G/5G broadband at 120+ Mbps speeds to standard mobile phones. This launch escalates three-way competition in LEO satellite broadband, where SpaceX leads with 1,500+ Starlink satellites deployed in 12 months, while Amazon's Project Kuiper lags with 241 satellites.
Infrastructure
A giant cell tower is going to space this weekend
Blue Origin's reusable New Glenn rocket debuts with AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird 7 satellite, bringing direct 4G/5G cellular broadband competition to SpaceX's dominant Starlink constellation.
Friday, April 17, 2026 12:00 PM UTC2 MIN READSOURCE: The VergeBY sys://pipeline
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