AST SpaceMobile presses case for developing own launch vehicle

spacenews.com Nov 13, 2026

AST SpaceMobile presses case for developing own launch vehicle

Curated by Shubham · TechCapsules · Nov 13, 2026

AI-summarised brief · reviewed before publication

AST SpaceMobile announced its Blacklift reusable launch vehicle at a New York event on Nov. 12, pledging a two‑year development timeline despite industry doubts. The three‑stage rocket, powered by seven Firefly Miranda engines on the first stage and two Vira engines on the second and one on the third, will lift 20 tons to low‑Earth orbit and carry up to five of the company’s BlueBird satellites per launch, targeting twice‑monthly flights. Blacklift will be built largely from carbon‑composite structures, a material AST says reduces dry mass by 40 percent, and will be 95 percent vertically integrated, with composite tanks already in early testing at its Midland, Texas facility. The first flight is slated for late 2028, with launch operations planned from the upgraded Wallops Island pad originally used for Northrop Grumman’s Antares.

💡 Why It Matters

· By securing its own launch capability, AST aims to sidestep a constrained market and guarantee the cadence needed for its satellite constellation.
· This vertical integration could reshape how emerging space firms address launch bottlenecks.

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‘Don’t panic’: SpaceX pens familiar message on Starship ahead of historic double-catch…

SpaceX is set to launch the 15th Starship test flight on Nov. 13, featuring the first simultaneous “chopsticks” catch of both its Super Heavy booster and the upper stage, Ship 42. The vehicle, rolled out to Starbase on Nov. 12, bears the phrase “Don’t panic,” a nod to Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Musk’s long‑standing fandom. After liftoff, Super Heavy is slated to return to the launch pad about 6.5 minutes later, while Ship 42 will deploy 26 next‑generation Starlink V3 satellites before orbiting Earth 14 times and attempting its own tower catch on Nov. 14. If either stage encounters issues, the plan calls for a Pacific splashdown near Hawaii or Chile. Successful dual recovery would mark a milestone in SpaceX’s goal of 10,000 annual Starship flights by 2030.

💡 Demonstrating a fully reusable two‑stage recovery could slash turnaround time and costs, accelerating SpaceX’s push toward near‑daily launch cadence.

space.com · Nov 13

Powerful Vulcan Centaur rocket launching for 1st time in 9 months today:…

United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket is set to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 12:54 p.m. EST on Nov. 13, carrying 40 Amazon Leo low‑Earth‑orbit broadband satellites. The flight marks the vehicle’s first launch in nine months and its first mission for Amazon’s Leo constellation, following three prior Vulcan flights that suffered solid‑rocket‑booster nozzle failures. ULA has implemented a redesigned nozzle and additional testing to address the anomaly that prompted the U.S. Space Force to pause national‑security launches on the rocket. If successful, the launch will deploy the satellites over a 25‑minute window beginning roughly 70 minutes after liftoff, adding to the 400 Leo satellites already in orbit and expanding Amazon’s competition to SpaceX’s Starlink network.

💡 The flight validates ULA’s corrective measures, restoring confidence in Vulcan for both commercial and defense customers and accelerating Amazon’s push to rival Starlink’s global internet coverage.

teslarati.com · Nov 13

Tesla and SpaceX merger talks hit a new stage, and one hurdle…

Tesla and SpaceX are accelerating merger talks, with a possible public announcement as early as December, Bloomberg reports. Boards and advisers are finalizing deal terms and governance, while the allocation of SpaceX shares to Tesla investors remains unresolved. A December reveal would move the timeline ahead of the previously targeted first‑half‑2025 window and precede a potential early‑2027 scenario. Tesla stock rose 1.9% to $398.35 and SpaceX shares gained 0.6% to $140.63 after the news. The combined entity would value roughly $3.45 trillion, eclipsing any prior corporate transaction. Key hurdles include separating Tesla’s profitable Chinese manufacturing operations from SpaceX’s U.S. defense contracts and navigating heightened regulatory scrutiny following the recent Democratic takeover of Congress.

💡 The merger would create the world’s largest tech conglomerate, forcing regulators to confront unprecedented cross‑border and defense‑industry entanglements.

space.com · Nov 13

Watch SpaceX attempt a historic Starship launch and double-catch landing today (Nov.…

SpaceX is set to launch the Starship megarocket on its 15th test flight from Starbase in South Texas on Nov. 13, with a 75‑minute window opening at 5:45 p.m. EST. The mission will attempt the first simultaneous “double‑catch” of both stages: the Super Heavy booster is slated to land on the launch mount 6.5 minutes after liftoff, while the upper‑stage Starship will remain in orbit for more than 22 hours before returning for a tower‑arm capture on Nov. 14. During the flight, Starship will deploy 26 next‑generation Starlink V3 satellites, marking the second batch of this constellation. If any anomaly occurs, the upper stage will be diverted to a Pacific splashdown. Success would constitute the first full recovery of an orbital launch system, demonstrating rapid reusability.

💡 Achieving a complete launch‑to‑launch recovery would validate SpaceX’s vision of near‑instantaneous rocket turnaround, reshaping launch economics and cadence.

space.com · Nov 13

Pakistani astronaut set to become 1st international visitor to China’s Tiangong space…

A Pakistani astronaut will launch aboard China’s Shenzhou 24, becoming the first foreign crew member on the Tiangong space station. The mission follows a February 2025 agreement between China and Pakistan and a selection of two candidates, Muhammad Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud, from a pool of about 20 finalists. The astronaut will serve as a payload specialist for roughly a week, conducting experiments from four selected research payloads, and will return on the departing Shenzhou 23 vehicle. The launch is slated for late November from Jiuquan, using a Long March 2F rocket.

💡 This marks the first joint human‑spaceflight between China and a foreign nation, expanding international collaboration beyond satellite launches and setting a precedent for future multinational crewed missions.

space.com · Nov 12

Dark matter breakthrough coming? Euclid space telescope unveils its 1st look into…

On November 12, the European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope released its first major data set, DR1‑Foundation, comprising observations of over a billion celestial objects across an area equivalent to 9,500 full moons. The release includes spectra from 160 million sources, more than 900 million galaxies, 60 million quasar candidates, and 15,000 strong gravitational‑lensing events. Launched in mid‑2023, Euclid aims to map the dark universe, probing dark matter and dark energy through unprecedented 3‑D surveys. The data set establishes a baseline for future cosmological studies and demonstrates European scientific collaboration.

💡 The scale of Euclid’s survey surpasses all previous space‑based missions, offering a new window on the cosmic web and the growth of galaxy clusters. This dataset will sharpen constraints on dark energy models and refine our understanding of the universe’s large‑scale structure.