A deal worth more than $1.3 billion with Firefly Aerospace has raised the financial stakes considerably for AST SpaceMobile as it heads into Monday’s quarterly results.

The agreement commits AST to $400 million in upfront cash, 10 million to 14 million Class A shares, $250 million in engine payments, and a further $250 million in engineering support spread across three years.

In return, Firefly will supply 27 Miranda engines and nine vacuum-variant Vira engines for the first three Blacklift rockets, while AST secures manufacturing rights and Firefly retains intellectual property over the engines.

AST President Scott Wisniewski framed the engine partnership as a shortcut to competitiveness, saying “The Miranda engine will allow us to leapfrog the traditional five-to-ten-year development cycle as we build Blacklift.”

The Blacklift rocket itself is a reusable, 20-ton vehicle engineered to carry as many as five BlueBird satellites per launch, with commercial operations targeted for late 2028.

Thursday’s formal unveiling of the rocket in New York will follow CEO Abel Avellan’s public push this week touting satellite manufacturing progress, with production at the company’s Midland, Texas facility now reaching BlueBird 51.

Avellan captured the moment on X with characteristic bluntness: “We are done waiting. We are on to satellite 51 – the largest spacecrafts ever in LEO! and we are not stopping.”

Shares recovered modestly overnight, gaining more than 1% heading into Monday’s report, though the stock had already slid 21% last week — its steepest seven-day drop since July — and remains down 55% year-to-date.

Analysts expect third-quarter revenue of roughly $46 million, more than double the $21.85 million recorded a year earlier and about 46% above the prior quarter’s $31.52 million, according to Koyfin and Fiscal AI data.

The per-share loss is forecast to narrow sequentially to $0.45 from $0.77, though on a year-over-year basis it is expected to widen to $0.49 from $0.28, reflecting the scale of ongoing investment.

EBITDA losses are projected at $92.49 million for the quarter, slightly worse than the prior period’s $87.53 million, underscoring the tension between growth ambitions and cash consumption.

AST entered the period with significant financial firepower, reporting more than $3.7 billion in pro forma cash after raising $1.15 billion through a July convertible-note offering, and has maintained a 2026 revenue target of $150 million to $200 million.

Beyond the rocket program, AST also has agreements with external launch providers covering more than 100 satellites slated for deployment across 2027 and 2028.

The company said in October it plans to begin intermittent direct-to-device coverage before year-end across the U.S., Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Saudi Arabia, with denser satellite deployment needed to reach continuous service.

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits shifted to bullish territory from bearish readings a week prior, though one trader captured the divided mood precisely: “It is not an exaggeration to say I’m both excited and somewhat terrified.”

A more skeptical voice on the platform acknowledged the strategic logic while flagging fiscal concerns, writing “In-house rockets = good, but management needs to stop burning cash and capping about satellite numbers.”