Shares of AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ: ASTS) climbed more than 1% overnight heading into Thursday after the company confirmed the shipment of three BlueBird satellites to Cape Canaveral.
ASTS stock had fallen nearly 1% to $58.86 on Wednesday, closing out September with a 0.2% monthly loss and remaining down 19% year-to-date.
AST announced on X that BlueBirds 14, 15, and 16 had departed its Texas facility and were en route to the Florida launch site, writing “Another convoy is on the move” and “Next stop: orbit.”
The company had previously confirmed BlueBird 14 was complete and that satellites 15 and 16 were nearing completion, with the latest shipment announcement confirming their readiness but stopping short of specifying a launch date.
AST describes its satellites as carrying the largest commercial communications arrays ever deployed in low Earth orbit, capable of delivering space-based cellular broadband directly to standard smartphones without specialized hardware.
The platform also supports secure government applications and provides an additional connectivity layer, with AST working toward a broader launch campaign of approximately 45 satellites whose timeline previously shifted from 2026 to early 2027.
Production at AST’s Midland, Texas facility continues to advance, with the company saying progress has reached BlueBird 50 and that more than 20 spacecraft structures are currently being integrated as part of its assembly process.
CEO Abel Avellan met with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on Monday, according to a new FCC filing, with the meeting also attended by Jennifer Manner, AST’s senior vice president of regulatory affairs and international strategy, along with Nicholas Degani of Reticulated Strategies and Arpan Sura, Carr’s senior counsel and chief AI officer.
AST expressed support for the FCC’s proposal to make unlicensed spectrum available for direct-to-device services, arguing that the lower 6 GHz band should be added to the bands already under consideration to support competition and service development.
The company’s representatives also discussed AST’s support, working alongside its partners, for an auction of the 1675-1695 MHz band, signaling an active regulatory push to expand the company’s operational footprint.
The spectrum discussions come as AT&T CEO John Stankey publicly criticized SpaceX’s proposed rooftop cellular network as “not a viable strategy,” citing cost and consent hurdles, a contrast to AST’s carrier-partnership model with AT&T and Verizon.
AST’s recently disclosed change-of-control severance plan has also drawn retail investor attention, with the plan stipulating that a qualifying executive departure within one year after a change of control would entitle Avellan to twice the sum of his annual salary and target bonus.
Other eligible executives would receive 1.5 times that combined sum, while benefits also include prorated bonuses, health coverage payments, and full vesting of eligible equity awards, though a change of control alone would not trigger any severance.
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for ASTS jumped to “bullish” from “neutral” levels recorded a week prior, accompanied by high message volume, with one user writing “$ASTS Abel and B Carr meeting together in person at the FCC? Big.”
Another Stocktwits user offered reassurance about the satellite fleet’s condition, writing “$ASTS If BB11 had a problem I can’t imagine they would have shipped 14-16. More confirmation IMO that BB11 is just fine.”
