Thread by @thekookreport

🚨 $ASTS WEEK IN REVIEW🚨🚨

Blue Origin makes orbit on the first try, Starship faces on its seventh. ASTS has a flurry of FCC paperwork as ISRO seems to be gearing up for more business. That and more on The Weekly...

🤖Getting Up to Speed?

Listen to your favorite Fanboi's or get the real things on our Weekly Spaces

🤞The Path

Justin did some nice work here

🔍Scott, Pay Attention

I think $75 is low, but let's worry about that later. It's all about speed of execution. The rest will follow

💡Visibility Increasing

Despite plans to launch additional satellites this year, it is unlikely that consumers will be accessing AST signals (initially via AT&T and Verizon) much before the end of 2026. India’s ISRO will launch at least one satellite (probably in March) while SpaceX is contracted to launch four AST satellites around August this year and another four around October. Blue Origin is expected to launch eight satellites for AST around December this year.

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🌳Interest Is Growing

We cooled off from the meme-driven craziness of August, but 2025 is the year

👙You know what to do

ISRO is flashing us with some big cones. The rocket is on its way to the launch site.

🏃Abel Never Stops

What's happening in India seems to be something bigger…the country is accelerating now that they have a prestige US customer, and that customer is getting paths to lower inclination orbits

4 years out, so not today's business.

🧹FCC UK Clean Up

How mistakes like this get made is beyond me. Knowing Scott my reputation, I do know that he likely put the perpetrator on the wheel for this

🧩Verizon Spectrum Consent

⚙️FCC Gearing Up

The FCC is going to make SCS happen

🛠️FCC grinding

🎙️🐈Catse Speaks

A nice overview of the technical accomplishments

😺📣Catse Translation

A nice summary of Catse's Spaces

🇯🇵Rakuten Gearing Up

Service is starting in 2026

🏦Sell Side Update from Barclays

Barclays identifies that the Ligado deal is an enhancer, not a change of strategy

💸5G Money Fountain is Live

Let's see what happens, though. We got DOGE.

🪖SDA

I still think we have a separate shell. It might also use some dedicated spectrum

🟧Trump Will Care about $ASTS

1. The fear of falling behind China is massive. Enormous government support and funding for Space will only accelerate. 2. Satellites specifically represent our greatest opportunity to win the next 50 years due to connectivity and information warfare in countries coming under Chinese control. 3. The unanimous feedback from the Ukrainian theater is that the most important technology to the war effort is the connectivity provided by Starlink.

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🤏Starlink Limitations

Have the latest Samsung device? Great - you can get limited delayed random texting from space!

🛰️Reminder about how FirstNet will change

This is the most popular beach in LA. Emergency gear set up at Will Rogers.

🔵Go Blue

Goddamn its beautiful. I can't wait to see it go with our birds. Bluebirds with some cool afterburners

📦Bezos Delivered

New Glenn safely reached its intended orbit during today's NG-1 mission, accomplishing our primary objective. The second stage is in its final orbit following two successful burns of the BE-3U engines. The Blue Ring Pathfinder is receiving data and performing well. We lost the booster during descent. We knew landing the first stage on the first try was ambitious. We'll learn, refine, and apply that knowledge to our next launch in the spring. We're thrilled with today's outcome. More: bit.ly/4hj8q0o

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🚀Blue Origin Video

As NSF says, reaching orbit on the first shot…puts the rocket in good company.

1⃣Blue Origin Success

Getting a complex payload to orbit on the first try is like 1960's style for America when we were launching Saturns. Freaking incredible to watch.

✝️Almost pulled off a miracle

It will be interesting to see if they can get this right the next time.

🐴ASTS Launch Bullpen

Diversified capacity

🪄Is this Real Life?

I can't even begin to imagine the physics involved

🎇Interstellar Release

Christopher Nolan is really the best director ever. I cannot believe these special effects…

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🧨Starship: Go Fast and Break Things

Kaboom. Sucks for my plan to move to Mars.

🎱Starship Does Not Make Orbit

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As of now, Starship has not yet deployed a payload to orbit. While some test flights have made significant progress toward achieving orbital velocity and testing the system's capabilities, none of the missions have successfully delivered a payload into orbit.

1. First Flight Test (April 20, 2023)
Did it reach orbit? No.
Payload: None.
Details: Multiple engine failures on the Super Heavy booster led to loss of control. Starship did not reach stage separation and was destroyed via the flight termination system.

2. Second Flight Test (November 18, 2023)
Did it reach orbit? No.
Payload: None.
Details: Both the booster and Starship exploded during the flight. The Super Heavy booster failed during its boostback burn, and the Starship vehicle was destroyed shortly after.

3. Third Flight Test (March 14, 2024)
Did it reach orbit? No, but it achieved orbital velocity before losing control.
Payload: None.
Details: Starship successfully separated from the Super Heavy booster and reached space. However, it lost telemetry and was destroyed during atmospheric reentry.

4. Fourth Flight Test (June 6, 2024)
Did it reach orbit? No.
Payload: None.
Details: The Super Heavy booster performed a controlled splashdown, and Starship survived atmospheric reentry with a soft splashdown, marking progress but falling short of orbit.

5. Fifth Flight Test (October 13, 2024)
Did it reach orbit? No.
Payload: None.
Details: The Super Heavy booster was successfully caught by the launch tower ("Mechazilla"), and Starship splashed down safely after a suborbital flight.

6. Sixth Flight Test (November 19, 2024)
Did it reach orbit? No.
Payload: None.
Details: The booster opted for a water landing instead of a catch attempt. Starship successfully relit its engine in space but did not achieve full orbital insertion or payload deployment.

7. Seventh Flight Test (January 16, 2025)
Did it reach orbit? No.
Payload: None.
Details: The Super Heavy booster was successfully caught by "Mechazilla," but Starship's engines failed during ascent, leading to its destruction before reaching orbit.

🤨After The Starship Lightshow…

Going to let rich people get their tickets first on tomorrow's Titanic and see how it goes...