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ISRO to launch BlueBird-6 on December 24

BENGALURU: One of the biggest commercial communication satellites, developed by the United States, BlueBird-6, will be launched on December 24, 2025, by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) at 8.54 am. After multiple delays and prolonged wait, ISRO on Friday took to the social media platform X to announce the launch date. The satellite will be launched from ISROs Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM-3) rocket, which is popularly called as Bahubali. The low Earth Orbit satellite will be launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, the second launch pad. Earlier, AST SpaceMobile, a Texas-based company that developed the satellite, had announced the launch for December 15, 2025, and then it was postponed to December 21, 2025 and now to December 24. The satellite was transported to India from the US on October 19. It was later transported by road to Sriharikotta for further integration, fueling, testing and launch. The satellite launch is the first commercial venture of ISRO being handled by New Space India Limited, the commercial arm of ISRO. The aim is to earn revenue for the government through contracts and partnerships. According to AST SpaceMobiles team, this is the next-generation satellite and represents a 3.5 times increase in size compared to other BlueBirds 1-5 and supports ten times the data capacity. The aim of the launch of the satellite is to provide direct-to-device mobile broadband connectivity, fast and unhindered communication. It is also aimed to bridge the digital gap of poor terrestrial networks and to cover connected parts of the globe. It is also slated to carry the largest phased array of antennas to orbit. The ISRO officials said that the delay in announcing the launch date was due to prolonged pre-launching activities and the required tests. The officials said special attention had been made as the project will impact the communication and data centres across the globe, if there were any errors. The launch pad and vehicle also needed to be tested as this commercial partnership, showing Indias capability. As per ISRO data, the BlueBird-6 satellite launch is the second broadband customer to fly on LVM3 after Eutelsat OneWeb. The LVM-3, on November 2, had put Indias heaviest satellite-CMS-03, weighing 4.4 tonnes, in space.

19 Dec 2025 10:17 pm