A Samsung Galaxy S22 Just Phoned Space Thanks To A Monster Satellite 40X Bigger Than SpaceX’s Orbiters

90% of the earth’s surface has no cellular coverage, but that could be changing soon. AST SpaceMobile says it’s achieved the first-ever earth-to-space phone call using an ordinary, unmodified Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphone. The two-way phone call was made from Midland Texas to Japan over AT&T spectrum in the U.S. and Rakuten Mobile in Japan on April 25th with the help of engineers from Vodafone, Rakuten, and AT&T.

Supplying the key missing link between AT&T’s US-based cell network and Rakuten Mobile’s Japan-based network is a monster prototype satellite.

In fact it’s the largest-ever commercial communications array in low-earth orbit, the company’s investor presentation says.

The BlueWalker3 (BW3) satellite measures a shocking 693 square feet unfolded into its operational state. For comparison, a typical SpaceX Starlink satellite is about the same size as a table. If you think of a typical dining room table as something like three feet by six, that’s 18 square feet of aperture to receive and send signals to StarLink terminals on earth.

BW3 is nearly 40 times bigger.

“BlueWalker 3 is AST SpaceMobile’s prototype satellite and is designed to operate directly with standard, unmodified mobile devices,” the company says. “The spacecraft was built with an aperture of 693 square feet to establish connectivity directly with cell phones via 3GPP-standard frequencies. BlueWalker 3 launched to orbit at 9:20 p.m. ET on September 10, 2022, and is a predecessor to planned commercial satellites called BlueBirds.”

AST SpaceMobile plans to enable space-based 2G, 3G, 4G LTE and 5G cellular broadband globally, the company said in a release, providing “broadband” coverage over cellular to billions of underserved customers.

“30 years after Vodafone sent the world’s first text message, we supported AST SpaceMobile in successfully making the first ever direct-to-smartphone test call using satellite communications,” Vodafone Group Chief Executive Margherita Della Valle said in a statement. “This is just the start. As a lead investor in AST SpaceMobile, we will continue to break technological boundaries by connecting many more millions of people across the planet when the service becomes commercially available.”

The test calls successfully connected, exchange SIM information and network information — essential for connecting one phone to another — via the BW3 satellite.

It’s a massive step forward for smartphones, and for phoning in general, AT&T Network head Chris Sambar said in a statement.

“AT&T’s heritage began with the birth of the telephone 147 years ago and has continued with many other firsts including: trans-continental call, overseas call, call from the moon, and partnering to deliver the only network built with and for America’s first responders … this important milestone with AST SpaceMobile is a big step and we can’t wait to see what’s next in our space-based journey.”

But it’s also a massive potential disaster in the making for ground-based astronomy and dark sky lovers.

Already the massive Starlink fleet of satellites, which now number almost 3,600 in orbit, are causing havoc for skywatcher and astronomers. That fleet is planned to rise to about 12,000 in number, with a possible later extension to 42,000.

And while Starlink has made some changes to its newer satellites to render them less obtrusive, it’s hard to imagine how bad a satellite 40 times bigger — especially if scaled in a fleet for global availability — would be for ground-based astronomy. The bigger satellites are essential because while Starlink connects to its satellites via a fairly large antenna (perhaps the size of a small suitcase) that aims at specific points in the sky, SpaceMobile needs to achieve that same feat via our relatively tiny handheld smartphones, which have much less powerful cellular radios.

Only a fraction of the world’s population has cellular coverage, the company says, and billions of people have no internet access. To deliver it, SpaceMobile would have to launch thousands of massive satellites.

AST SpaceMobile says it has agreements with mobile network operators globally that have approximately 2 billion existing subscribers. That list includes Vodafone, Rakuten, AT&T, Bell Canada, Orange, Telefonica, TIM, Saudi Telecom Company, and dozens more.

Rakuten is SpaceMobile’s biggest investor, followed by Vodafone. Samsung is also an investor in the company.

The company has not said how many satellites it would need to orbit in order to provide global coverage, nor given a timeline for expansion, but it has raised about $725 million to date to fund the build-out, and claims to own over 2,600 current and pending patents.