All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.
COMSTAC members unanimously recommended moving AST out of the FAA to the Secretary of Transportation.
The FAA requested $57.1 million for AST in its fiscal year 2025 budget proposal, a 36% increase from 2024.
AST currently has 146 employees and is hiring more staff.
Deputy Secretary of Transportation Polly Trottenberg suggested the commercial space industry might need to pay user fees or taxes to support AST funding.
SpaceX vice president Bill Gerstenmaier warned that AST's workload could ground US space launch capability if not addressed.
The FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC) unanimously approved a recommendation on 2024-04-23 to move the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) out of the FAA and make it a standalone organization directly under the Secretary of Transportation.
In fiscal year 2024 appropriations, AST received $42 million, about 0.35% of the FAA’s overall operating budget.
The SPAC merger raised around $417,000,000 for AST SpaceMobile.
AST SpaceMobile secured a contract to launch its first Block 2 BlueBird satellite between December and March.
AST SpaceMobile's planned launch of its first Block 1 BlueBird satellites slipped from 2023 to the first quarter of 2024, then to the second quarter, and the satellites are not due to arrive at their launch site until July or August.
AST SpaceMobile's shares fell more than 23% the day after the 2024-04-01 disclosure to $2.01.
AST SpaceMobile said its first six commercial satellites have been fully funded following an investment earlier 2024 from companies including AT&T.
AST SpaceMobile received three non-binding letters of interest for export credit agency funding as it aims to deploy up to 45 satellites by the end of 2026.
AST SpaceMobile began trading on Nasdaq in 2021 by merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
AST SpaceMobile acquired a non-exclusive worldwide license to manufacture one satellite subsystem and replaced the supplier of a second subsystem with a new supplier with whom it completed a new design and now owns the intellectual property.
AST SpaceMobile plans capacity of up to 40 MHz per beam on its commercial satellites to support 120 Mbps peak data rates.
Total Adjusted operating expenses for AST SpaceMobile for the fourth quarter of 2023 were $38,600,000.
The five 700 sq. ft. Block 1 BlueBird satellites are expected to be transported from AST SpaceMobile’s assembly facilities to the launch site between July and August 2024.
As of 2023-12-31, AST SpaceMobile had cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash of $88,100,000.
AST SpaceMobile received a fixed-firm-price contract award with the United States Government through a prime contractor that is expected to produce initial revenue in 2024-01-01.