AST SpaceMobile will build its own rocket on Firefly engines in a $1.3 billion deal

AST SpaceMobile will build its own reusable 20-ton rocket, named Blacklift, and power it with Miranda engines from Firefly Aerospace, in a deal worth about $1.3 billion in total, according to Reuters.

The details below come from AST SpaceMobile’s press release of November 6, 2026, filed with the SEC.

Three payments make up the $1.3 billion

The $1.3 billion is not a single price. By our reading of the release, it combines three pieces. AST gets a perpetual license to manufacture Firefly’s Miranda engine and its vacuum variant, Vira, at a new engine facility in the United States. For that license it pays about $800 million: $400 million in cash plus 10 to 14 million Class A shares, with the share count set by a forward VWAP calculation.

A second piece is a $250 million supply agreement covering engines for the first three Blacklift launches. The third is $250 million for engineering services from Firefly over three years.

A reusable rocket aimed at late 2028

Blacklift is custom-built by AST, rated at 20 tons and designed for reuse. It is meant to carry up to five BlueBird satellites per launch, with operations starting in late 2028. AST says it will keep using external launch providers, and that more than 100 BlueBird satellites are contracted for external launches between 2027 and 2028.

The release puts Miranda’s thrust at 230,000 lbf. Firefly says the engine has completed more than 175 hot-fire tests totaling over 4,200 seconds, and a flight-like test at 110% performance. Those figures are the companies’ own and have not been independently verified. The release gives no specifications for Vira.

AST president Scott Wisniewski said the engine will let the company “leapfrog the traditional five-to-ten-year development cycle.” Firefly CEO Jason Kim called it “a bold transformational deal for Firefly, for AST SpaceMobile, and for the space industry.”

Owning the launch step as well as the satellites

The deal is a strategy move. The release says Blacklift completes AST’s end-to-end vertical integration. The company already builds its satellites itself, with BlueBird production planned through BlueBird 51 in Midland, Texas. Adding a rocket extends that control to the one step it has so far bought from others. Founder and CEO Abel Avellan described the rocket as “the springboard to significantly expand our total addressable market.” Bloomberg’s headline on the story framed the plan as a challenge to SpaceX.

The structure also shows how the money moves. Most of the value, about $800 million, is for the right to build engines, not for engines themselves. Only $250 million buys actual engines, enough for three launches. Firefly gets cash and AST stock now, while AST takes on the job of running its own engine production line.

For Firefly, the engine is already central to its own plans. According to public descriptions of its Medium Launch Vehicle, that rocket uses seven Miranda engines on its first stage, producing 7,200 kN of thrust. A search of public sources also shows Firefly reporting a total backlog of about $1.3 billion in July 2025, so a single agreement of this size is large against that figure. Firefly’s results since then are not covered here.

AST’s near-term launches do not depend on any of this. The company has said BlueBirds 11, 12 and 13 are targeted to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida in the first half of August 2026, on an existing vehicle rather than Blacklift.

What the release leaves open

Several things are not established. The release gives no price per engine, no launch site for Blacklift, and no test schedule before late 2028. It does not say where the new engine facility will be built. It does not explain how the share count will be fixed beyond the forward VWAP reference. Building a reusable rocket is a long and difficult program, and the late 2028 date is AST’s target, not a commitment from an independent party.

AST says it will unveil the rocket at an event in New York City on Thursday, November 12, 2026, webcast on its investor relations site. More technical detail may come then.