The countdown for the Wednesday morning launch of India’s LVM3-M6 rocket carrying Nasdaq-listed AST SpaceMobile Inc’s 6.5-ton BlueBird Block-2 satellite is expected to begin around 8.55 am on Tuesday, sources said. This mission marks the 6th operational flight of LVM3.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has said the LVM3 will lift off from the second launch pad at the Sriharikota spaceport at 8.54 am on Wednesday. About 16 minutes into the mission, the 43.5-metre-tall, 640-tonne launch vehicle will place the BlueBird-6 satellite into Low Earth Orbit (LEO).This will be the largest commercial communications satellite ever deployed in LEO and the heaviest payload launched by LVM3 from Indian soil.

During the countdown, propellants will be loaded into the rocket’s liquid and cryogenic stages, and its systems will undergo final checks.

The LVM3, developed by ISRO, is a three-stage heavy-lift vehicle comprising two S200 solid strap-on boosters, an L110 liquid core stage, and a C25 cryogenic upper stage. It has a lift-off mass of 640 tonnes, a height of 43.5 metres, and a payload capability of 4,200 kg to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). In its earlier missions, LVM3 successfully launched Chandrayaan-2, Chandrayaan-3, and two OneWeb missions, while the most recent LVM3 mission, LVM3-M5/CMS-03, was successfully completed on November 2, 2025.

BlueBird 6 marks the debut of AST SpaceMobile’s next-generation satellite fleet. Once deployed, it will feature the largest commercial phased array in LEO, spanning nearly 2,400 sq ft—a 3.5× increase over its predecessors, BlueBirds 1–5—and delivering 10× more data capacity, the company said.

AST SpaceMobile is developing what it calls the world’s first and only space-based cellular broadband network designed to connect directly to everyday smartphones for commercial and government users.

"Our next-generation satellites will soon enable ubiquitous cellular broadband coverage direct to everyday smartphones from space," Abel Avellan, Founder, Chairman and CEO of AST SpaceMobile had said earlier.

"As an American company, we are proud to demonstrate US leadership in space innovation while pioneering the next era of global connectivity,” Avellan said.

AST SpaceMobile is accelerating production, with hardware equivalent to 40 satellites expected to be completed by early 2026.

It anticipates five orbital launches by the end of Q1 2026-all expected to be launched by SpaceX rockets.

With satellite launches spaced one to two months apart, aiming for 45–60 satellites in orbit by the end of 2026 to enable continuous coverage across the US and select markets, AST SpaceMobile had said.

AST SpaceMobile’s rapid expansion is supported by nearly 500,000 sq ft of manufacturing and operations facilities worldwide, about 400,000 sq ft of which are in the US and a global workforce of nearly 1,800 employees, most based in the United States.

The BlueBird 6 launch contract was arranged through NewSpace India Ltd, the commercial arm of India’s Department of Space.

AST SpaceMobile will become the second satellite broadband customer to fly on LVM3, after Eutelsat OneWeb, which launched 72 satellites using two LVM3 missions in 2022 and 2023.