Launch
Blacklift
What AST has published about Blacklift, its own rocket for launching BlueBirds. Figures below are the company's. A launch or experimental license is listed only if a filing was found. Engine counts, stage counts, and a launch site are not stated in the company documents opened here.
2026-11-06
AST says it will build Blacklift
On 6 Nov 2026 AST said it will build Blacklift and use Firefly Miranda engines and vacuum-variant Vira engines. Firefly is to deliver engines for the first three rockets, provide engineering services for three years, and grant a perpetual license to manufacture those engines. AST says it will build the engines at a new facility in the United States. The quarterly note states the license consideration as $400 million in cash plus an estimated 10 to 14 million Class A shares, of which 2.4 million would be freely tradable at closing. The supply agreement is a $250 million hardware fee for the first three rockets' engines and a $250 million services fee over three years. AST's page and release attribute more than 175 hot-fire tests, including runs at 110 percent of rated performance, to the engines. The release identifies those tests with Firefly's Miranda engine: more than 4,200 seconds and a flight-like test at 110 percent of a 230,000 lbf engine. Those are engine tests AST is citing, not a Blacklift flight. AST also said external launch agreements still cover more than 100 BlueBirds expected to fly in 2027 and 2028.
- Purpose
- Carry BlueBird satellites to low Earth orbit. AST says the rocket complements existing launch partners and does not replace them.
- Payload class
- The company calls it a 20-ton rocket and says it is designed to carry up to five BlueBirds per launch.
- Status
- Announced. First use is aimed at late 2028. Closing of the Firefly license and supply agreements was expected in the fourth quarter of 2026. No flight test of a Blacklift vehicle is described.
- Filings
- No FAA launch or experimental license, and no FCC experimental authorization, for Blacklift was identified. The commercial agreements are in AST's SEC filings, not a launch filing.
Source pending
- Source pending: an FAA launch or experimental permit, and any FCC experimental license, for Blacklift. None was found in the company releases or SEC exhibits opened for this review.
- Source pending: stage count, engines per stage, propellant, launch site, and flights per month. AST's release, quarterly note, and Blacklift page do not state them. Later news reports of the 12 Nov 2026 New York event do not agree with each other on the first-stage engine count, so those counts are omitted.
Last reviewed 2026-11-14. Sources are linked beside the claims they support.