A satellite designed to beam internet access to smartphones on Earth has successfully unfolded its massive communication array, which reaches 693 square feet in size.
The satellite comes from the Texas-based AST SpaceMobile, which is developing a satellite internet network for ground-based cell phones. Back in September, the company launched the prototype satellite, dubbed BlueWalker 3, into Earth’s orbit to test the technology. But on Monday, AST SpaceMobile was finally able to unfurl the satellite’s communication antennas.
“Now that it has been unfolded, the satellite spans 693 square feet in size, a design feature critical to support a space-based cellular broadband network,” the company said. “The satellite is expected to have a field of view of over 300,000 square miles on the surface of the Earth.”
BlueWalker 3 stands out for featuring the world’s largest communications array in low Earth orbit, or what amounts to a giant flat surface. The back side consists of solar panels to collect energy. The other side is made up of antennas that can beam data to ordinary smartphones on the ground.
AST SpaceMobile designed the satellite to essentially act as an orbiting cell phone tower that can supply 4G and 5G speeds to rural and remote areas off the grid. The goal is to eventually operate over a 100 satellites, known as BlueBirds, for global coverage.
“The successful unfolding of BlueWalker 3 is a major step forward for our patented space-based cellular broadband technology and paves the way for the ongoing production of our BlueBird satellites,” said AST SpaceMobile CEO Abel Avellan in the announcement.
The company can now begin testing BlueWalker 3’s satellite broadband technology, which is designed to work with smartphones without any special hardware. AST SpaceMobile notes it has agreements with cellular providers including AT&T, Bell Canada, and Vodafone to potentially expand the satellite broadband to their customers. But the system could end up facing competition from SpaceX and Apple, which are working on their own satellite cellular connectivity services. The orbiting satellites could also attract concerns from astronomers worried about the same satellites generating light pollution in the night sky.