Three AST SpaceMobile BlueBird satellites—BlueBird 8, 9 and 10—lifted off aboard a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral at 2:39 a.m. EDT, with deployment set to begin about 54.5 minutes after launch.
The mission expands AST's direct-to-cell broadband network, and the three spacecraft would quadruple its next-generation BlueBird presence in low Earth orbit from one to four.
Falcon 9's first stage landed on the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas about 8.5 minutes after liftoff, completing the 29th launch and landing for that booster.
The launch also helps AST recover from April's BlueBird 7 loss, when Blue Origin's New Glenn placed the satellite into the wrong orbit after an anomaly.