SPACEMOB LAUNCH PARTY 🅰️

[00:00:06] Speaker A: This is the AST SpaceMobile Podcast. It will just basically come to your phone and be seamless regardless of where you are. We don't want the user even to know that it's connected by satellite. Listen, the opportunity that we have is very, very, very large.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: What is going on, Space Mob? Welcome to the Space Mob launch party stream. Very, very excited to be here. Shout out to everyone on Spaces right now. We're trying our best to get this up on YouTube. It's being a little slow. We might need to make a new stream here. Um, I have Catsy and Antpen in here also as speakers. If you guys want to say what's up and intro yourself, and I'll get this up and Running on YouTube.
[00:00:54] Speaker C: Hey everyone, what an exciting evening. Hi, what time is it in Sweden?
[00:01:03] Speaker D: It's 2:33. It's middle of the night.
[00:01:09] Speaker E: Oh boy.
[00:01:10] Speaker C: Were you able to take a nap today?
[00:01:14] Speaker D: No, I sort of stayed up late. Uh, yesterday to prepare for this. So yeah, shifted my day a bit.
[00:01:23] Speaker F: Right.
[00:01:26] Speaker D: Yeah. So exciting. Looking forward to the launch finally, right?
[00:01:29] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:01:31] Speaker G: Yeah.
[00:01:31] Speaker C: It's, um, it kind of didn't hit me until later in the afternoon that this was coming and I guess it's a bit different, the feeling, unlike the previous launches where this You know, the BlueWalker 3 or Block 1 launch, it's kind of a one and done, at least for a while. Whereas this one is going to kick off, you know, a number of launches. So this is exciting.
[00:01:56] Speaker D: Definitely. And another satellite on its way to Cape.
[00:02:03] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:02:05] Speaker C: Kelsey, are you listening to something? I think I can hear in the background. And there's obviously a lot more to come.
[00:02:11] Speaker D: I was, uh, preparing to be able to crank up audio from the livecast.
[00:02:18] Speaker E: Right.
[00:02:19] Speaker D: So I've got this, uh, sound setup for that.
[00:02:23] Speaker C: Yeah, I think, um, I guess for everyone, we're just going to chat, but then try to stay out of the way of the AST SpaceMobile YouTube. I'm assuming that they'll do something similar to Block.one where they'll have a host and then there's probably going to be some new content that they'll release, educational overviews and perhaps some videos of producing Bluebirds and then maybe some videos on what the deployment might look like. I mean, we'll see. I have no idea, but I remember the last time when we were down in Florida, they had A ton of different, you know, production videos, which was great. And so I'm looking forward to seeing what they unveil this evening. We'll see. But anyway, Katzi, how did you, I guess, over the course of today, how did you prepare, if at all, for this launch mentally?
[00:03:27] Speaker D: I did some probability calculations.
[00:03:32] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:03:34] Speaker H: Yeah.
[00:03:35] Speaker C: I saw that.
[00:03:36] Speaker D: I tried to try and figure out what the failure probability was. And I don't know, the takeaway is that we're no longer dependent on a single launch for the future of the company, like Arguably we were with the BlueWalker 3. If that would've failed, it would've been fatal perhaps for the company. But now it's some 45 to 60 satellites going up within a year. And then what happens to a single launch is it can't be fatal really.
[00:04:20] Speaker C: Right.
[00:04:21] Speaker D: Yeah, and for the probability calculations, both New Glenn and this Indian launcher LVM-3, they are of a rare breed that was successful in the first launch.
[00:04:34] Speaker E: Mm-hmm.
[00:04:35] Speaker D: And if you look at those, then they often end up in the 95 or better class of reliable launchers.
[00:04:48] Speaker F: Right.
[00:04:50] Speaker D: And when they're off to a good start, it often continues in that way. But so LVM has had 7 successful launches thus far that were orbital launches. And that math, I arrived at a failure probability of perhaps 6% for this launch.
[00:05:19] Speaker C: Well, those odds are good.
[00:05:20] Speaker D: Yeah, they are.
[00:05:22] Speaker H: They are.
[00:05:22] Speaker C: I kind of joke that Pivotal Capital, this short seller, he's always like the contra signal. And today he put out a negative video of a rocket blowing up. And so I think he just blessed us with a successful launch.
[00:05:39] Speaker H: Yeah.
[00:05:42] Speaker C: I guess just to prepare, you know, things can and do go wrong. And so I think everybody should be mentally prepared for that just in case, whether there's like a potential anomaly with the rocket, but also deployment of the satellite as well, or the unfolding. But then, as you mentioned before, the great thing is that we are at the beginning of a launch campaign. And so after this one, we'll have Bluebird 7 go go up either on a Falcon 9 or I think some of us believe that Blue Origin New Glenn, the launch in January will take up that single satellite. And then after that, we're going to have at a minimum 2 Falcon 9 launches with 3 Bluebirds each, probably going up sometime in February. And then after that, I think we'll start to see the Blue Origin New Glenn take initially, which I think they're going to ease into it, but they're going to take up 6 of them and then eventually, once they optimize the vehicle, get up to approximately 8.
[00:06:46] Speaker D: Yeah, that will be an enormous capacity increase compared to one of these single satellites going to 520 kilometers altitude. When you put an ASIC up at 690, and not just one, but 6 or 8, that's quite an enormous capacity increase and value because—
[00:07:12] Speaker E: Right.
[00:07:13] Speaker D: Well, the ASIC is in itself a 3.3 times increase of throughput. And up there, there's the longevity of higher orbit, the dwell time increases. So 10 years or more, whereas you expect 5 to 7 years on 520 kilometers. So much more capacity and much more value in those later launches compared to this one.
[00:07:46] Speaker C: Yeah, it'll be interesting to see what combination of Falcon 9 and Blue Origin New Glenn they use over the course of 2026. Now obviously it was extraordinary that New Glenn was able to land their booster. And now we went from this state of, yeah, I think people are somewhat skeptical to now, and then I think overoptimism around Blue Origin New Glenn, which You know, rightfully so. But it'll be interesting to see how quickly and, you know, what type of cadence they can build over the course of 2026.
[00:08:31] Speaker D: Yeah, definitely. Oh, our host is back, I think.
[00:08:43] Speaker C: Yeah. I think that is the YouTube up. I'm not sure if it is.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: Yeah, my bad, everybody. Uh, I'm getting the YouTube up. I'm just, uh, I had to like reconnect the full configuration. So that will be up momentarily. I appreciate you guys, uh, kind of taking over while I do this. It should be about 5 minutes. I just got it to connect. I just got to change the title.
[00:09:02] Speaker H: Thank you.
[00:09:03] Speaker B: Yeah, appreciate it, guys.
[00:09:04] Speaker C: Thanks for hosting. I know this is, um, this can be stressful. I actually don't know how you do.
[00:09:12] Speaker B: I feel like I became, uh, I feel like I became an audio engineer this week.
[00:09:18] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:09:18] Speaker B: And, um, just, I finally had it. I just need to get the title changed because it was like some crazy, crazy title. So let's try here and then we should be good to go.
[00:09:29] Speaker C: So you're going to give up the YouTube?
[00:09:32] Speaker B: Uh, I'm still going to try, I believe. I'm just turning it back on on X the video.
[00:09:45] Speaker C: Hey, Tut's back.
[00:09:46] Speaker E: Tut's here.
[00:09:47] Speaker B: Hey. Tut tut tut, you're right.
[00:09:51] Speaker G: I invite him up.
[00:09:52] Speaker C: Hey, how's it going?
[00:09:53] Speaker D: Hi.
[00:09:54] Speaker E: Good.
[00:09:56] Speaker C: Where are you right now?
[00:09:57] Speaker B: You're like just in time. I think I think we're we're steady going.
[00:10:03] Speaker C: Where where are you right now, Tut?
[00:10:05] Speaker I: Somewhere in the world.
[00:10:07] Speaker E: Okay.
[00:10:08] Speaker I: It's quite early though. It's like 5:40 AM.
[00:10:11] Speaker C: Oh, nice.
[00:10:12] Speaker I: Pulling an all-nighter.
[00:10:15] Speaker C: I think, I think Kook is out there too, somewhere. So how did you spend your day preparing mentally, or did you just not think about it at all?
[00:10:29] Speaker I: Not think about it at all. Honestly, it's been, uh, it's been an exciting day. So, uh, Hopefully it all goes smoothly. I saw Kachi had a thread about the launch on his row. So that 6%, I'm going to count it as zero. It all goes smoothly today.
[00:10:47] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:10:54] Speaker C: I pulled out the, my model, my LVM3 is a good luck charm. I'm rubbing the belly of this rocket. So were you able to pick up a Dr Pepper?
[00:11:05] Speaker I: Diet Dr Pepper.
[00:11:07] Speaker C: Hmm.
[00:11:09] Speaker I: Diet Dr Pepper.
[00:11:10] Speaker H: Diet Dr.
[00:11:10] Speaker J: Okay.
[00:11:11] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:11:11] Speaker C: You gotta watch your your figure, huh?
[00:11:14] Speaker E: Under percent.
[00:11:19] Speaker C: Yeah, it'll be interesting to see. As I was mentioning before, when the company, I'm assuming they're gonna have. like some interviews with, with strategic partners and, um, some, some videos about, about the mission and of course the satellite. So it'll be interesting to see what they release this evening. But yeah, I think everybody's nervous and anxiously awaiting the launch.
[00:11:50] Speaker B: Yeah, right now I, I have the stream going, but I do not have the audio on YouTube, so just bear with me, then we should be good. Well, we're all here in Spaces, so, so kind of on YouTube, right? So kind of, yeah, it's, it's on there. I just need to get the audio pumped in. I'm not very good at OBS, but, um, since, um, kind of we're all here and, and, and so, um, kind of want to hear you guys' thoughts on what do you think? Like, obviously this kind of will unlock a lot for AST. I'm kind of as we go through these launches, we see more opportunities to expand. And I think that's just something we can kind of touch on and kind of what's coming next, because obviously we've waited a while and now that these satellites are up, it kind of gets exciting from here.
[00:12:41] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:12:44] Speaker D: Steve Larison, he once said that launch is not an event, it's a process. So we won't get instant feedback if everything is successful. There will be a Time of deployment and then taking things slowly to get the satellite working. So yeah, just to set—
[00:13:09] Speaker E: See, what I'm hoping for is, what I'm hoping for is that they're going to give us the update. By the way, hello everyone. That we're going to get the TTMC confirmation. I think that's the best we can hope tonight.
[00:13:24] Speaker C: Is that we have a live bird with a connection?
[00:13:27] Speaker D: Yeah, they'll tell us if there is an orbital insertion that's successful. And then, of course, if telemetry is up, we might get to wait a day or two for that. And if the— That's like this.
[00:13:49] Speaker F: Sorry?
[00:13:50] Speaker E: Oh yeah, so, you know, I personally have silly high expectations as well because as you may know, this is a military mission. You have your SPR. And so you would imagine everything's going to be twice personnel given the importance of the mission. This isn't, you know, you're running with no telecommunications satellite.
[00:14:19] Speaker D: Yeah, I was gonna say, uh, likely Halo's satellite, right? And the, the 2 firsts.
[00:14:24] Speaker C: I might lose connection.
[00:14:27] Speaker E: I'm about to go on a tram route in the Blue Mountains, and so it's a question of cell phone connectivity as I go down a mountainside. So I might lose everyone, in which case I'll see everyone on the other side.
[00:14:41] Speaker K: Thanks for dropping by.
[00:14:41] Speaker C: But yeah, I think someone did ask me before about what to expect this evening. And so as Kasey mentioned, launch is a process, it's not an event. And so once the satellite is inserted into orbit, it's going to take the company some time to detumble it and get it in the right spot. And then I would think, and I forget exactly how long it took, Block 1, but it's going to take several days, perhaps weeks to turn on the satellite, run diagnostics, and then at the right time, just to give you an example, if you had solar flares or certain conditions, you wouldn't want to unfold the satellite if there's any probability that perhaps that might impact the unfolding process. And so you would wait until the most optimal time You know, the batteries are charged and everything's ready to go and diagnostics look good. And then you would unfold the satellite. And then my guess is, you know, it's not as if the company's going to say, hey, we're going to unfold the satellite a day from now. They're actually going to unfold it and make sure everything's successful. And then they'll PR it at some point, probably a day or two after, which is what they did previously. But Kasey, I don't know if you had any additional thoughts on that.
[00:16:01] Speaker D: So the first BlueWalker 3 took some 2 months before it was fully deployed, and then Block 1, some 6 weeks. I'm hoping for 4 weeks this time total. I'm going through the stages you mentioned because now they have a—
[00:16:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:27] Speaker D: more fully developed ground network looking up, you know, more telemetry stations, more gateways. So they'll be able to step forward in a faster way through those stages, I think and hope. I remember Abel Avelan, he actually replied to me when BlueWalker 3 was launched that it was thermally stable. I'm gonna check when that was.
[00:17:03] Speaker F: So.
[00:17:03] Speaker B: So it looks like we're all good. If you guys can hear me, we're up running on YouTube and all. We'll have the stream ready to be watched on video on YouTube and on X, and we'll just kind of kick it in the spaces here. I did want to show a hype video. This was made by Redrum. Anpan posted it. And I think it's just something that we should all just sit back and watch. So if you don't see the video, I know it's kind of tough on Spaces, but it is on my X page right now and it will also be on YouTube. But yeah, well, let's sit back and watch this hype video and get ready for launch.
[00:17:44] Speaker D: Yeah, so I checked Blue Walker 3. It was launched on the 10th. Of September, um, in 2022. And 2 days later, Abel tweeted that it was communicating with ground station and was thermally stable. So it was a 2-day delay there.
[00:18:06] Speaker B: Hopefully you guys could see that video. I know like in the spaces it can be confusing with the video, but once we do have launch, I will kind of like show with my phone and also input that audio there. So I had like kind of a list of other topics I want to talk about while we're all kind of here. So I guess since we, we do kind of have the, uh, some of the legends here, kind of want to hear from each of you kind of like just one by one. Anpan, Tuck, Kook, and Katzy. So like, and just like few sentences, what was really like the moment that made AST kind of click for you? And like, what made you really wanna like pursue this? 'Cause like looking back, like we've all been doing this like 4 or so years and looking back, it's like this has kind of been a hobby that has kind of like turned into something that is changing lives and like changing our own and something that we obviously like think about all day, every day. And I think it's something really special here. So I just want to hear kind of what made it really kind of like click for you guys and kind of made you take this path of like nosediving fully deep. We can start with Cook.
[00:19:23] Speaker E: Yeah, I'll speak first. Thanks, man. I was surprised and happily hit you several companies in a row there and saying I'm pretty sad. Uh, for a little bit, the night they announced this fact that I was bad looking for reasons why this wouldn't be another factor of satellite companies. And what I saw that we saw in the industry was less the technical innovation, but the promotional innovation that they did to that regular Superhostel model. And I felt like that would be the perfect element that would surprise them out there. And so all other endeavors had had a custom plan for it. It's then introduced to the typical challenge of customer acquisition costs. And so you have to flower out of your sales. And each of these prior endeavors were very high friction, which unlimited amount of building their own outbound process, they're not moving. And so what the tech allowed was a frictionless ability to, uh, reuse the service, put them on our platform, we do M&Os, we avoided the customer acquisition costs that they have. That to me was the critical insight the company had that allowed for it to be enormously scalable. For a true bench setup, you know, where the title of an ad first is, it set itself up for a monopoly outcome. So that gave me the belief that we lined up essentially to do a trillion-dollar company. And those are very rare. I've never been able to do those myself, but I've I'm close enough to have a taste for it. So like, through it, I saw this one that I thought I'd dip a toe off the bar and I'm just wondering if it's kind of sort of going through the nuts personally.
[00:21:04] Speaker B: Well, that was a really good response, man. Appreciate all the work you do. I think a lot of us have really caught onto this through you and it kind of keeps the DD fresh. So how about you, Anpann?
[00:21:22] Speaker C: Well, I mean, yeah, I guess just, I came across AST SpaceMobile by already owning a position in NPA. And so it was kind of, I guess, fate that this company fell into my lap. And as I dug into it and learned more, And saw the strategic backing and I guess thought about the technology and how it could transform connectivity by just using unmodified phones. That's what really hooked me. And so initially though, it was a trade. I was invested and I put together an overview of the investment just to see if I could get traction with other people. But over time, as I dug in more and obviously the first real kind of aha moment was speaking with Abel in April of 2021. And that was a meeting where I typed up my notes and posted it on Reddit. But that meeting and just talking with Abel and hearing his passion and his conviction about the technology And what it could do to lift, you know, to connect the unconnected and lift many out of poverty. I mean, that was the key mission back then. And so yeah, for me, that was the real hook. And, but I think over time, I wouldn't have stayed in this investment or had the conviction if it weren't for the community. And so as Katsy mentioned, Steve Larison, of course, Katsy, Cook, Tut, many, many others who I see down in the audience below. But yeah, if it wasn't for this community and friendships, I wouldn't have had the conviction to stay in it. And I think, you know, there's this connection with people who have invested, but also with the company. You know, I have relationships with some of the management teams and we've gone through ups and downs in terms of me being an investor, being disappointed in them or being happy with what they've done. But I think just having been there so early, because the company typically at this stage would not be public, but essentially having a venture investment in this company and kind of seeing it through thick and thin over 2021, '22, '23, '24, and to see it come to this point. Yeah, it's part of my life at this point. I was thinking about today how I've known the company and been invested for 5 years and it's almost like another child, which is kind of crazy because I spent so much time talking about AST SpaceMobile and doing things around the investment and promoting it, but also obviously connecting with people. I've made so many friends in real life in the community. And so yeah, it's something special. It's not just an investment, it's not just a hobby, I'm not sure what to call it, but yeah, that's, I guess that's the background for me.
[00:24:31] Speaker B: Awesome. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Tut, love to hear kind of what drew you this way.
[00:24:42] Speaker I: Yeah, so I came across it when the SPAC deal was announced. I think Dan and Cook were posting about it regularly. Didn't have like really much of a big position back then. And throughout 2021, kind of followed the story along. And then obviously 2022, the market had a big downturn. Kept following along. BlueWalker 3 launch was successful. And in early 2023, it's kind of like when I fell in the rabbit hole. Seeing all the due diligence that was posted by Steve Larison, by Cook, by Anpan, by Katzi was very eye-opening. And having traveled a lot all over Africa, Asia, and South America, understanding the importance of connectivity and the dead spots and dead zones all over. And that's kind of part of the thesis for my investment is a lot of people are looking at it one-dimensional, just focusing on the US market or Europe. Obviously those are most commercially lucrative, but at the same time, say like 80% or more of the world really needed just for day-to-day connectivity across different parts. So I've been following along and seeing how the thesis has kind of evolved with the launch of Block.one and the continuous validation of the technology and the amount of bears that has continued to bash the stock with our friend Pimpernel and many others. And I think that has kind of like just made my conviction even stronger. And as MKan said, like, This wouldn't have been possible without every single person in the Space Mob, every single person in the spaces as a whole. It's truly something special.
[00:26:31] Speaker B: Wow, that was very powerful, man. Hearing kind of like all your stories combined at the same time is super, super cool. Now that we're all kind of here together and like reflecting back, it's like, Back when we were talking about this in 2021, people were just saying, this is a PowerPoint, this will never amount to anything. But we knew, we knew who was invested. We knew these big companies knew what they were getting behind, and we ultimately trusted the process. And I think that talks a lot about us and kind of like that, that we spent all this time with all this research and all you guys do. And at the end of the day, it's a hobby that has kind of just piqued our interest. And I was thinking that earlier today, I was sitting there and I was like, like before this ASD and Space Mob, like what was I doing with my spare time? What was I like? I didn't, couldn't really think of anything I was super, super kind of into and would just like read about every day dialed in. And I think it's something special. So now next up, I'd love to hear from Katzy kind of what got him kind of into this stock?
[00:27:42] Speaker D: For me, it was a finance market professional on Facebook writing about the stock in Swedish. And then later I found Reddit and that exact write-up from Anpanman when he met with the Bao. Also the, um, Marshak video. And we all are more interested in different aspects of the company, and I'm not coming from the business model and financial aspects of it. I was more— my curiosity was piqued by the technology aspects of it. And I started researching that. And as the others said, I wouldn't have been here and not as heavily invested unless the team effort, because then I can understand the other aspects better by reading what the other contributors shared. But yeah, we're living in the information age, and so a lot of the big companies, they're doing data transport or information of some kind. Just look at the big companies on US stock market. And for me, going from towers to satellite was just another natural leap, spatial leap. higher ground, of course. And these—
[00:29:29] Speaker C: Deep fried.
[00:29:31] Speaker D: These huge phased arrays, they are a bit like general-purpose technology. If you look at their use case down on Earth, they're not just used for communications, but other things, sensing. And I've always had an interest in military technology and So I see them as a multi-use case, multi-user tool that has other use cases. So very interesting to understand the technological aspects of it. There's some loopback, I think. I don't know what that is, but so The space domain is accessible by things that don't burn on reentry, like sensing, communications, and computing. And so this brings that aspect to the terrestrial networks. So it's a really interesting time. Yeah, I'll end there.
[00:30:49] Speaker B: No, very interesting stuff. It's very exciting. I'm very grateful we're all kind of in this journey together with the Space Mob. I finally believe I do have the audio going. It's weird. Like I was doing, I was using Google Chrome and for some reason it just kept cutting out of the spaces. So, so maybe next time we'll use a different audio to kind of go about that, but should be good now. Like we're going to be good for the launch. I'm going to make sure we're all good. So I appreciate you guys sticking around on YouTube and like the X video. Right now I'm just kind of showing the launch logo, which is, which is very, very cool. So speaking of launches, we just shipped this new one to Cape Canaveral. It's super exciting. I love the way the PR lined up. It's just beautiful to see that as we make progress and move towards the launch that's happening today, that we have more lined up and it's gonna keep building from there and going from there. So in terms of launch, do you guys have any predictions of when the next one will be?
[00:32:00] Speaker I: Soon.
[00:32:05] Speaker D: I'd say about 30 days after shipment is a usual time.
[00:32:11] Speaker C: Yeah, so probably at the earliest would be late January for this next one, but it depends, like if it's on Falcon 9 or if it's on New Glenn, my, I'm just throwing this out there, but if it's on New Glenn, it might take a little longer. Just given that it's a new vehicle, and so integrating into that fairing might take a little longer versus Falcon 9. But then again, the company has been working very closely with Blue Origin, so I'm guessing that Blue Origin probably has been given early heads up in terms of specs, and they've probably been working on the adapter to mount it onto a Blue Origin.
[00:32:56] Speaker L: Yeah.
[00:32:56] Speaker C: New Glenn fairing, in addition to whether that's a configuration of 1 or a configuration of eventually 6 to 8. But yeah, probably late January.
[00:33:09] Speaker E: Awesome.
[00:33:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I definitely think that New Glenn kind of getting this implemented and working is kind of their main mission now. Like, as you can see on their site, we're one of the first big clients, And when you're building these rocket businesses, you need a lot of business upfront to be able to afford to build these and build these boosters. And things are always going wrong. And I can't even imagine how much money is eaten up in the launch industry, especially when you're using reusable rockets. So having a reliable customer like AST right off the bat is truly just a win-win for both AST and both Blue Origin and Jeff Bezos, because this way we have the ability to be able to launch more frequently if we're their main customer, and also more at a time because their rocket will ultimately be able to hold the, um, the most AST Bluebirds. So whenever I do talk to my friends and such, I'm like, Once this Blue Origin rocket's going, the path to full connectivity could be here faster than we know it. And it's kind of weird looking back and thinking that because it seems like we've just been like kind of choked up. It's not even like the company's fault. It's just hard to get these launched up and into space. But once you have a rocket that's shooting 6 to 8 up at once, it's like as these batches roll out, as the factory's making 8 or 6 satellites a month. It's really giving that pickup fast. And I honestly think like a year from right now, we might be doing a launch stream using AST SpaceMobile.
[00:34:53] Speaker C: Yeah, that would be ideal. That is a possibility. But yeah, once I get production cadence up, Then these launches will become pretty regular. I mean, it's going from a company that launched BlueWalker 3 in 2022 to then the 5 Block 1 satellites in 2024, to then being able to launch 45 to 60 satellites in 2026. It's going to be pretty crazy. I mean, you know, if you can't make A launch, if you can't make a launch party down at Cape Canaveral, there's going to be many behind it. As we've joked, some of us, maybe we should just buy a house down there. And since there'll be so many, we'll fly down there and just hang out there. But I think the—
[00:35:49] Speaker G: Oh, hold on.
[00:35:53] Speaker B: Are we talking like space mob house?
[00:35:55] Speaker C: Yeah, we're just jerking.
[00:35:57] Speaker B: Space mob, like space mob, like Jersey Tori. shore-type house where you can like overlook the launch, have a patio back there with a grill.
[00:36:03] Speaker H: Dreams, right?
[00:36:07] Speaker C: Save on hotel rooms. But I think, yeah, it'll be interesting because at that point, I think for investors and Wall Street, it's going to be very visible. You're going to have this launch campaign of so many satellites going up, whether it's 3 on Falcon 9 or 6 to 8 on Blue Origin New Glenn. And so I think the relative unknown AC Space Mobile is going to become very visible through those launches. And so yeah, awareness is going to spread and we're going to get initial commercial service that's going to be intermittent. And then as more and more satellites are added to the constellation, similar to what happened with Starlink Direct-to-Cell, where initially it was like very intermittent, but then services improved, they're at 650 satellites. Um, once we get to 60 satellites, this, the service is going to be pretty good. And, and then once you get to 100, um, you know, the expectation is that at least here in the United States, um, it should be pretty seamless and pretty fulsome. But, um, but I don't know, Katzi, do you have anything else to add there?
[00:37:14] Speaker D: Yeah, I've been thinking about that, um, because when they get enough satellites up that they have the opportunity to if they choose to use a more narrow field of view. What they do with a wide field of view is they use few satellites to create continuous coverage, but the limiting case is the edge cells. To keep them small, you need to use the entire array. If you narrow the field of view, which you can do when you have a lot of satellites up, you can concentrate on a smaller footprint and create much more narrow cells and still keep the cells the same size. That would increase the area spectral efficiency. And I wonder if they do that when they go beyond continuous coverage, and they can choose to create smaller cells. That's an interesting way to increase the throughput of the constellation. Another way is, of course, launching shells that operate in other cellular bands.
[00:38:40] Speaker E: MIMO.
[00:38:43] Speaker D: So we'll see how that develops.
[00:38:45] Speaker B: So once, if ASC does start launching in different bands, kind of as this constellation builds up, like, what are some of the, like, positives to that? Obviously, like, for like defense uses, I assume?
[00:39:08] Speaker D: Quality of service will increase. And for the cases where higher frequencies works best, which could be free line of sight, not one wall in, for example, then they can take care of all that traffic, and you can use low band for the most difficult cases under foliage and inside the house and stuff like that. And that will be using the right tool for the right job sort of thing that will overall create better throughput and quality of service. But when you launch more shells, this will be a much more dynamic network than the cellular terrestrial network with the towers. It's more static. You have the same line of sight, the same direction to the tower, but the satellites, they move. And so when you have several satellites on several frequency bands, it will be better quality, more even quality of service than if it's just one band, because then it will sort of be better, have a variation in the quality of service. It will get much better. And also the higher frequencies, they come not just with wider spectrum band that the satellites can use, they also come with smaller cells, so that they serve fewer users in a smaller cell, so they can simply, they have great capacity, they have a larger throughput, total throughput. So expect Block 3 Bluebird satellite operating in L and S bands to have some 10,000 cells down on planet Earth, and Block 2 will just have one-fourth.
[00:41:42] Speaker I: Yeah.
[00:41:47] Speaker C: The other thing I would add is that Block 2, which is what's being launched this evening, those are going to be focused on low-band cellular spectrum, and that is to fill coverage gaps. And so where a terrestrial network exists, an MNO, if they're covering a certain area, The satellite will not beam down a signal to that area because it doesn't want to interfere and there's already an existing network. And so if you could imagine, you're just painting all the empty spots with the Bluebird satellite to provide service over low-band spectrum. But then once the mid-band shell is up, which is Block 3, that's going to be 100% coverage nationwide. And so it actually will overlap with the terrestrial network because it's a different frequency. It's Anywhere as low as 1.5 gigahertz to as high as 2.5, 2.6 gigahertz. And so that network is actually going to be 100% coverage. And even in the city, to the extent that a mobile user needs that network, it will be available because it will overlap with the traditional network. But more importantly, that constellation Can then be used, and this is the mid-band constellation for other applications, like for example, autonomous vehicles, drones, IoT, and that could be, or that will be in partnership with AT&T and Verizon here in the US, but then AST could also partner with some other companies to provide service that could be outside of the MNOs. But yeah, that's a key difference where The terrestrial, the Block 2 Bluebirds, they're providing more dead spot coverage, and then the Block 3 will be 100% mid-band, high-capacity data coverage. But then just like you see with Starlink today, which uses a mid-band spectrum, that spectrum is not going to— it can carry a lot of data, but then it cannot travel through, it doesn't have as good propagation characteristics, so it may not go through A wall or roof, or it should be able to go through your car. But yeah, as Cassie mentioned, once you have 2 shells up focused on different frequencies, the quality of service goes up because then you can, for a mobile phone, you can mix and match depending on the need. Your phone will connect to the satellite and it'll also be able to aggregate capacity, which which Katzy talked about, which is MIMO, where you can do carrier aggregation. You can utilize both low-band and mid-band spectrum to increase throughput.
[00:44:34] Speaker B: That's all very interesting stuff. It's, it's, I always do like, um, talking to you guys 'cause getting into the technicals is really fun for someone who mostly just kind of follows them from the, uh, company standpoint. And I always learn a lot when I, when I hear from you guys. And I appreciate you guys spreading that info because for some people that are, especially me who are invested in the stock, it's like, okay, exactly how does this work with the bands and all that? And without Katzy and you guys and Cook like kind of explaining it, I feel like a lot of us would be like just confused. So shout out there. So I had a few more topics I wanted to kind of touch base on. Obviously, like, kind of the big thing with as we launch more and kind of as we see these executive orders coming in with a bunch of spending in the space industry, looking for satellites, doing stuff with all this Golden Dome talk. I think we should kind of get into the Golden Dome a little. I know Katzi just posted a A tweet the other day that was a banger and really made me think like, wow, like what AST is doing here has so much capability to get this contract as we get this constellation up. So, Kats, if you want to kind of dive into some of the Golden Dome and the specifics and why AST is good for it, I think a lot of people watching right now will appreciate that because the MNO side is pretty easy to follow here.
[00:46:13] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:46:14] Speaker B: We're doing a pretty simple revenue share on the subscribers with them, and we know who needs this service, people who want to feel safe and want to feel connected. That's kind of the easy side, but like once you start looking into what else these satellites are capable of is when it gets really fun and interesting. So I'd love to hear some of your golden dome take.
[00:46:34] Speaker D: Right. And recently the company has alluded to this also. They have, I believe, 8 contracts with the US Department of War, and they have identified 10 different use cases. So that's a lot. And again, what can we do with space? We can Do things that aren't tangible. We can sense, we can compute, we can communicate. So collect data, disseminate data, and analyze data. And we do that using something that also is not tangible, natural resource that's radio frequency spectrum. So it's within that broad scope that these use cases are. You can also use directed energy for, say, jamming or such spoofing. Then what's unique about AST is a lot of things really, but foremost the power aperture, and that's a key performance metric of phased array sensors. Nothing is as big and as powerful. And it allows to sense things at longer distance at higher resolutions. They also have advanced beamforming. They can form, shape the beams, their directivity, their power, their shape. And do that dynamically. They have advanced side lobe controls through tapering. So they use different level of power over the phased array. We know all these things from patents that they have published. And this opens up for using the network as a sensor. They're also connected to Common Core for the commercial case that's down on planet Earth. It doesn't have to be, it can be in space. And so you can use the RACE in a multi-static mode. You can use them as Yeah, one can send a signal and others can listen and form a virtual larger array or an ever omnipresent ear, if you like. You can also use them for the active part and then listen to them from surface or Terrestrial radars that can go silent and just listen allows big existing platforms to go silent and not reveal their position while they still can use their radar arrays to listen if someone else illuminates the targets. We also have this interesting angle from space. not just shooting parallel to the— their beams parallel to the surface of the Earth, but looking down, which helps for getting another radar cross-section for things like stealth aircraft, hypersonics. So, and then AST has this aspect of now ramping up to 6 satellites per month in a continuous flow, which will produce a set of tiers or shells of satellites. So it's a bit like Starlink is, a continuously producing machine that puts these satellites up. And I think the military would be very interested to have such a path to, in a rapid way and continuously and over time, iterate for improvements, not just do a batch and then have to—
[00:51:56] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:51:57] Speaker D: start all over again. There's a way to iterate faster. And so they have this ability to sense just the way terrestrial radars do. The way we have space domain awareness now, that's big phased arrays down on Earth looking up. Having a big phased array out in space looking down or looking sideways is not very different. Um, but so this Reagan, he, he thought he'd build this Star Defense Initiative, or Star Wars people call it, but the technology wasn't mature back then, certainly not for space-based radars. It was much too expensive and difficult. But now in this day, now this technology is within reach. And Tournier, the outgoing boss of Space Development Agency, said that the technology is within reach for space-based radar. He said this in, I believe, September. So that's one interesting use case that sort of sensor that will complement the thermal infrared sensors of other companies to get the sensor fusion to detect objects and to track them. Then there are a lot of other use cases, military use cases like Yeah, spoof-proof positioning, navigation, and timing. And you have, of course, communications. That's the big base use case of space mobile technology, is to be able to connect to small radios. These days we have a lot of small radios deployed in more, more radios than soldiers, radios on drones, radios on weapons and distributed sensors, and weapon radios on the soldiers themselves. And ASD has, together with Fairwinds, tested that with the Android Tactical Assault Kit. So it's wide range of military use cases, and AST has the opportunity to deliver some of those without totally reinventing their satellites. And that speaks a lot to the efficiency of the whole operation. If you can for a set cost deliver something that has multiple use cases and multiple users, then you can take that research and development cost, the cost of building a factory production line, and sell that yet another time or a couple times. And that And it's another aspect of this company that potentially makes it very, very profitable. Well, and there.
[00:55:38] Speaker B: Awesome. Wow, you're on top of it for being 2:30 AM over there. Love it. So yeah, very interesting stuff. Killing it, Katzi. So very, very, very cool stuff here. A little more on the Golden Dome here. The fact that the company has mentioned it a few times just kind of shows that they're definitely kind of all in for this contract and the fact that the government's using us. I think it's just a matter of time as we do these launches and get these tested where the government will have its moment where it clicks and it says, all right, it's time to sign on to this because this is technology. that our country will need moving forward, and this is the best way to do it. So, and Pan, I would like to hear, uh, a kind of a few of your thoughts on Golden Dome and why you might think Golden or AST might get it. And also, I have someone that just requested to join here who I think used to live in India or something by ISRO, so I'll have him come up next. But yeah, I'd love to hear some of your, your thoughts on Golden Dome.
[00:56:50] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, as I've shared in Spaces before, the company has gone from being somewhat, you know, they've dropped a few hints here and there, but overall pretty cagey about it versus in more recent investor conferences, Bank of America and UBS, Scott has been a lot more vocal about being involved in Golden Dome. And so as Kasey mentioned before, Outside of just Golden Dome, you know, the company now has nine contracts with Department of War, SDA, DIU, and some others that they haven't disclosed. So, you know, we are involved, and these the satellite that's going up this evening is likely part of the Halo program, and so is BB7. And so, you know, we are. These two satellites are going to demonstrate. the capabilities of what the company has to offer. And there's a whole host of things that, as Katsu mentioned, would be applicable to Golden Dome. But I would say in regards to actual nuggets, this company has talked about ramping up capacity potentially beyond 6 satellites a month to up to 10 to 12. And what was mentioned along with that is the potential to make satellites for the government. The other thing is that the company has gone from, I think it was over the summer, like 400,000 square feet of manufacturing to more recently 500,000 square feet. And then in the third quarter, and also at UBS, Scott mentioned that they are now, or actually it was at the UBS conference, they're actually looking for additional manufacturing space in Midland, Texas in order to build more microns. And there will be that facility once they find it and stand it up, that will be a dedicated facility just for making microns. And so clearly the company has ambitions to build additional satellites beyond what they need for the first 2 shells. And then at the end of the UBS presentation, he did talk about very specifically, and this, again, this is Scott Wozniewski. He talked about once the 2 shells are up, which would be the Block 2 and then Block 3 shells, low-band, mid-band shells, he did talk about potentially having a 3rd government shell, which again, I think goes back to the military use case. But if you think about what the Bluebird satellite is in essence, and then Elon Musk has talked about this quite a bit, Each satellite has the ability to generate 100 kilowatts of power based off our estimates. If you include the potential of this solar tail that Katzi has diligenced or shared his perspectives on, you're looking at anywhere between 100 to 120 kilowatts of power generation. And then using the phased array for sensing and communications, that's a very powerful asset to have. And I think when contemplating this whole notion, I know it's kind of overused buzzword, but AI data centers in space, if you think about Golden Dome, you will need some level of compute, AI compute capacity out in space. And so Bluebirds would be a perfect vessel to host that because if you think about the idea of Golden Dome and in a situation where If the US was under attack or allies who were, you know, there's a potential for a European Golden Dome that AST might be involved in. You would want AI computing out in space because if you rely, if that constellation Golden Dome relies on solely terrestrial processing, if some missiles get through and you have a number of assets that are destroyed on Earth, for example, data centers, then that renders the constellation basically useless, right? So you'll need some level of computing power out in space, and that computing power should be autonomous in case people down on Earth can't respond or because of the conflicts, maybe they're incapacitated or the networks are jammed or whatever it is, right? And so I think Having AST Bluebirds in the way that I've thought about it is they would almost be the quarterback of the Golden Dome system where you have these large satellites that have a tremendous amount of power and can do all these different functions, but also host payloads for processing and intelligence.
[01:01:39] Speaker E: Right.
[01:01:39] Speaker C: So yeah, I think I know that there was some concerns from people that the initial Golden Dome recipients were out there. And from what we understand, that's just kind of the first round. There's going to be more. And I think especially for AST with this new form factor, which is the Block 2 satellite, I assume the government's going to want to see 1 or 2 satellites up and running and basically a significant amount of of this new spacecraft being de-risked and operating functionally before making any type of commitments. But for all intents and purposes, I think the company and all Golden Dome recipients, they all know what phase they're in and whether or not they're well positioned. And I don't think you would see the level of spend and capital raised by the company And discussion around it without them feeling pretty damn confident that they're going to get it. So yeah, I'm very optimistic. I think we'll find out probably in the next month or two. And that's, you know, that's just add that to the hopper of all the different things that are going to be happening, whether launch of BB-7, BB-8 through 10, BB-11 through 13. You know, we've got FCC approval for US market access coming sometime in probably January, February. We have a number of other M&Os that are probably going to sign definitive agreements soon, and there's some speculation that maybe we'll get another big Middle Eastern one perhaps sometime in January. And so yeah, there's a lot going on. So lots to be excited about. Golden Dome is just kind of one little piece of all these different aspects of the company's business who I think, you know, for 2026, it's going to be an outstanding year.
[01:03:32] Speaker B: Spot on. And it is pretty crazy to think about like this whole ecosystem of ASD. And I've never really followed a company with just so much sheer, like every week I just feel like it's like, what's going to happen? And as we move towards the future and as like the government gets more on board, It's truly insanely exciting. And the AI Space Centers, and I am glad you brought that up. So like last night before I was falling asleep, I was playing around with, like, and I was going to publish it, but I ran out of time. It was like an ASTS launch bingo card. And on it, there was definitely a spot that says Anpin talks AI Space Centers. So I love it.
[01:04:19] Speaker I: But that's good.
[01:04:23] Speaker B: I had that. I had like Katzy gets into the technicals of Golden Dome. I had Cook saying, know what you own, but I don't think he said it, but he'll probably be back at some point. But so what time? So AST, so their webcast is going to start in about 13 minutes here. So we're just going to kind of keep talking AST. Once it comes on, I'll pump in that audio and then like the video will also be on our X, YouTube, and the audio will be here. We can kind of like, I assume they're going to be talking. I think they have a factory tour, like, uh, to show some of the production line. And I'm, I'm very excited to see that because it's always so cool seeing like the inside of these massive factories. And how many like employees they have working on these and just the sheer size. It's like, I can't even imagine the size of the rooms to build these new satellites, right? Like you walk in there, it's probably, it probably doesn't feel real. I'm not too sure, like on the manufacturing, I assume they, I'm sure Kat's your end pin now. I assume they manufacture them all in like one giant room.
[01:05:37] Speaker D: Maybe.
[01:05:38] Speaker B: I don't know.
[01:05:39] Speaker C: Uh, that's a good question. I've never visited.
[01:05:42] Speaker B: Um, yeah, I wonder if it's just a giant warehouse where they kind of build it all together, but like it's—
[01:05:49] Speaker C: Yeah, they have 2 spaces, one in Odessa, the main facility, and then they also have Midland. And so they, they do build, um, different pieces. Um, but I'm not sure where— I, I think Odessa is where they do the final assembly. But yeah, they're, they're, Kook and I were going to go down to Midland for a tour at some point, but it just never, it never came together. But, but yeah, if Scott's listening, we're ready for the tour.
[01:06:17] Speaker F: So.
[01:06:17] Speaker B: Yeah, Scott, Scott, sign us up. We'll make you some amazing content. Wink wink.
[01:06:23] Speaker D: The, the Odessa site has several buildings and so. The assembly of subsystems into the control set is in one of the larger buildings, simply from watching images that ASTI has released. But then assembling the subsystems and the smaller subsystems are of course in other buildings. And then there is also at the Odessa site the shake and bake process of thermal vacuum test and vibration tests that take place before shipping off to the launch provider. So they don't do that offsite, they do that onsite. Cuts A couple of weeks from the process of shipping it to a third-party test facility. So, but not everything takes place in one big room, just the final assembly when they put the smaller subsystems into the control set. Then the control set is Built in, in, in one part and these subsystems in other parts.
[01:07:54] Speaker F: So.
[01:07:54] Speaker B: Very awesome. Very interesting. So, and Panman, um, so what made you like come up with the idea to order 26 bottles of champagne to, to, to Abel today? Was that just a random thought?
[01:08:07] Speaker C: Well, you know, uh, I actually, I've done it once before in my career. There was a, Back in the day when I guess it was like my second year into my hedge fund career, there was a company that was bought out. It was a company called 3PAR and it was a subject of a bidding war between Dell and HP. And it started out at like $18 and it was a position that I had. And the 2 companies, HP and Dell, like went after each other to try to win this thing and it ended up going selling for $33 after a public bidding war. And so I'd actually known the company before they went public, and to celebrate because I'd made so much money, I sent them 33 bottles of champagne for each each dollar that they were able to to get. And so I just thought about doing something special. We actually as the mob, a few others, we we had talked about potentially getting a food truck or something for the employees down in Midland just to give them you know an acknowledgment that we really appreciate all. all their hardware because I think there's like 3 shifts going on and people are burning the midnight oil to make these satellites. I mean, I think we all understand that this is hard and there's delays, but there's also a human element to it, right? Like there's actually people who are working their tails off making sure that these satellites are put together properly, tested. And so yeah, I wanted to do something nice. I'd asked the company before, hey, can we send a food truck down there? But I think there was some concerns around security or other things. And so in terms of coordination, it might've been tough. So just on a whim, I guess it was like 2 or 3 days ago, I just decided to send some champagne down to Midland as a token of thanks on behalf of all of us really. So hopefully they get to enjoy it. I'm not sure where management is. I'm assuming that maybe Abel and Scott are one or both of them are either, or someone's representing us in India and then they're probably at the command center in Maryland is my guess. But who knows? Who knows where they are? Maybe they are in Maryland, but maybe we'll see. Like I think it'd be really cool in the YouTube livestream if they actually show employees in the various offices. That would be cool. Similar to what Blue Origin.
[01:10:32] Speaker G: Yeah.
[01:10:32] Speaker B: For some reason, I thought you were about to say it would be awesome if they show after the launch the employees cracking the bottles.
[01:10:37] Speaker C: It's like, could you imagine?
[01:10:39] Speaker B: Like, hey, that was me.
[01:10:41] Speaker C: I think Cook was—
[01:10:42] Speaker A: I did that.
[01:10:43] Speaker C: Was like, hey, what are you trying to do, sabotage? Like, if they're gonna get drunk, the other satellites, it's like, come on, just give them a day.
[01:10:49] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, they're gonna be drinking. They're like, they're gonna be, oh, now we gotta like, um, deploy this.
[01:10:55] Speaker D: Oops.
[01:10:56] Speaker B: Yeah, now that they're responsible, you gotta be.
[01:11:00] Speaker I: Totally.
[01:11:03] Speaker C: But yeah, that's, that was the thought behind it. Hopefully they'll, they'll appreciate it. But, um, I, I, what I've been thinking about for next year, if they, um, if they get to 60 satellites, then maybe I'll send them 60 bottles of champagne. But, um, but yeah, it was, it was weird. Like on Reddit, um, someone had reposted it and then some people were criticizing me for not sending more expensive champagne, which Vive Clicquot is, is, I, I like it. And then like at one point I was like, oh, maybe I'll send them Cristal. And then I looked at Cristal and it's like several hundred dollars a bottle. It's like, okay, I mean, if I send them, originally I was going to send 100 bottles, but I was like, 26 is more, it's sending 100 is kind of gaudy, right? But then when I looked at Cristal, it's like, okay, that's a bit over the top, but who knows if we get to $200 a share, then I'll send them. I'll send them some Cristal.
[01:11:52] Speaker B: Just send, just start sending like a dollar per every share at the end of the year. Eventually they'll be like, all right, we got to cap this out.
[01:12:03] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:12:04] Speaker M: Yeah.
[01:12:04] Speaker C: I think someone was mentioning maybe send that.
[01:12:07] Speaker F: Yeah.
[01:12:07] Speaker C: I think sending a bottle of champagne for every satellite by at the end of the year, I think that's a good metric. But yeah, I mean, I think for people in general, If you want to send gift baskets or things like that, I'm sure the company wouldn't turn them away. They'd probably be happy. And so some people had reached out to me today asking how they could send alcohol, and I used wine.com, but there's other services out there. And, you know, I don't, you know, it's up to you. Maybe send a fruit, what is that, edible arrangement or something. I'm sure employees down at Midland or whatever offices, they have an office in Miami too. If you send them A little token of thanks.
[01:12:48] Speaker B: Maybe some—
[01:12:49] Speaker C: they'd love that.
[01:12:50] Speaker B: Maybe send some Dubai chocolate.
[01:12:52] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, some Dubai chocolate.
[01:12:54] Speaker B: So Dubai chocolate, that'll be ready to go.
[01:12:57] Speaker E: Yeah.
[01:12:59] Speaker B: So the AST webcast starts in about 5 minutes, and I did kind of want to touch on— I did like the element you just talked about how, yeah, we like talk about the stock all day long, but it is crazy to think that Behind this company is like these insanely hardworking men and women that are working overnight, putting these together, like being away from their families, probably working 12-hour shifts. And just to kind of make this mission true. And I'm sure the employees there are very passionate about what they're doing. And it seems to me like the company culture is very strong because They kind of understand what they're doing. They see the ramp up and hopefully those employees got a lot of good stock options and compensation because what they're doing, they totally deserve that once this thing's up full. And I'm sure they do have those options, especially because Abel has obviously taken advantage of all of his ownership options and just sits on every single share, which is still insane to me.
[01:14:06] Speaker C: Yeah, it's funny because over the years when you've had bears and short sellers complain about the company, it was very easy to respond and say, well, yeah, the founder, he hasn't sold a single share. And that's been true over 5 years since they've been public. And so it's hard to refute that, like even with stock going to $100, that I'm not selling a share.
[01:14:32] Speaker B: So yeah. And isn't he sitting on like $78 million or something? Like, it's $100 a share. Like, how do you not take a little off? But like, he knows and he's in it for the entire mission. And I feel like it honestly is probably like a thing to himself where he's like, I'm not going to get my stock like super up and then drop it on people. I know the mission isn't even close to complete yet because we have 6 satellites and we plan on deploying hundreds. So why sell this early on? And it doesn't really make sense when you look at it, but still, like, even a little bit just to buy like a nice like house or something is like, okay.
[01:15:15] Speaker C: I think it's important though to— this is not normal. Like, I do think people should like, for Abel and other executives. They should be free to sell some of their stock and to enjoy some of it and take care of their families. And so I think Abel is, like Cook, an extreme example where he's just holding on to every single share. And so as you mentioned, he has 78 million Class C shares, which is worth about $6.7 billion as of today. And so what I think though, what you've seen this year, how it what's changed is he actually is taking some stock awards. We saw that in the most recent proxy. And so this is the first year where he's actually taking some small amount of stock awards, which I think to him and for the rest of us, it will allow him to eventually sell some of those shares, which I think is a good thing. Like, I think everybody who is a founder, owner of a company who's built a tremendous amount of wealth, not only for themselves, but for everybody. I think they should have the freedom to do that. And so when he does eventually sell some shares, I don't think people should freak out. It's just a normal thing to do. But I do see, I don't know if they're going to immediately like launch within 1 minute the YouTube stream, but I don't know. Do you think it's good to pipe in the audio here or should people kind of run that separately? Um, 'cause I think maybe, maybe we can continue to talk here and there. Um, but if the audio's running, it might drag.
[01:16:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I, I was possibly gonna put the audio here, then we can kind of commentate as it goes. Like if, um, we'll see what's going on, but I, I do, I do recommend we, we do, we are gonna have it up with the, I'm gonna get that up right now. We do have it up with the video on YouTube and, uh, Because I think one issue is there's going to be a delay, right?
[01:17:14] Speaker C: And so, and there's a, there's a delay on top of a delay, like when you were on xbase. So it might make it tough, but okay. So I guess it's going to take some time for them to come up.
[01:17:26] Speaker O: Yeah.
[01:17:28] Speaker B: I don't see it up yet, so we can just continue to talk, but I have it already.
[01:17:35] Speaker F: Cool.
[01:17:35] Speaker D: Yeah, about Abel, having a founder like him is an unfair advantage, doing what he wants to do. I think it's that the dedication for the mission is something that, if not assures success, then it promotes success. If you can find something where the market opportunity is and where your talent is and what you want to do, that's a powerful combination, right? Yeah.
[01:18:14] Speaker C: I think the other thing too is that Abel, he was successful. He did sell his previous company and, you know, he made a decent amount of money. You could guesstimate as to how much he made, but What that gave him was a decent level of comfort and then the ability to really, like you were saying, stick with the mission. Oh, here we go. Looks like starting a minute and 30 seconds. But yeah, having that flexibility and not caring what the market thinks and—
[01:18:42] Speaker B: That just jump scared me so bad 'cause I had like 3 computers up and my one was up all the way. Then I just heard this music and I'm like, where is this coming from?
[01:18:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:18:51] Speaker C: But I think for Abel, yeah, having some amount of personal wealth so that it's not what's really driving him, but it's ideologically this mission to connect the unconnected and fulfill this dream of his. I think that's what really sets this guy apart because he's just like a man on a mission. He wants to succeed and money's not really what's driving him. It's It's his passion for this underlying technology and what the company can accomplish. This is exciting. I see 37 seconds on my side.
[01:19:30] Speaker B: This music is awesome.
[01:19:32] Speaker D: Yeah, looking forward to hear what the company has to say. I think Scott will be—
[01:19:38] Speaker B: If there's people talking and stuff, I'll try to like pump it in the spaces.
[01:19:42] Speaker E: I'll put my little microphone to it.
[01:19:46] Speaker C: I think it might be good to just leave this space, um, without, without the audio pumped in, because if we're listening to the audio here locally and then it comes out here, it's going to be weird.
[01:19:55] Speaker B: You're going to be hearing it a thousand times.
[01:19:57] Speaker E: Yeah.
[01:19:57] Speaker C: Yeah, that's right.
[01:19:58] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:19:58] Speaker B: So yeah, everyone tune into the AST stream or one of us on X or YouTube, then we'll kind of throw in notes as we go. I guess I can get a little fancier watches. So it just cool, it's kind of seeing the behind the scenes right now. Oh, like, look at all these Sardine employees Christmas Eve over there.
[01:20:36] Speaker F: You are two and a half minutes. Rocket, rockets like LVM-39, something you know over. One and a half. Thrusting box solid rocket model. Thrusting box solid rocket models use enormous acoustic levels which have a big effect on components, the non-critical assets. Mitigate the acoustic levels, the acoustic suppression system.
[01:21:05] Speaker B: It's interesting hearing all what they're doing.
[01:21:07] Speaker C: Oh man, this is really happening, guys.
[01:21:23] Speaker B: Yeah, my heart's racing right now. I'm about to take a chug of a Dr. Pepper.
[01:21:53] Speaker D: Oh.
[01:21:53] Speaker B: It's not me trying to pump the stock price. 40 seconds. I'm gonna pump some audio in from this.
[01:22:33] Speaker F: The viewers may watch out for the swing out of the cryo arm and the acoustic suppression system starts operation.
[01:22:41] Speaker C: 30 seconds.
[01:22:50] Speaker B: All right.
[01:22:51] Speaker D: Yeah, so everything's looking nominal so far.
[01:22:55] Speaker B: Let's send her up.
[01:22:56] Speaker D: This proceeds to launch, which I think it will. We'll see the light. This candle.
[01:23:02] Speaker B: Yeah, let's light it.
[01:23:06] Speaker C: Man, that rocket pumps right off the snap.
[01:23:10] Speaker D: Oh, so much thrust that it takes off wings. Thrust from the pad. Then some minute in, core stage will also ignite.
[01:23:28] Speaker C: Oh, LVM-3 M6 rocket का सफलतापूर्ण मुठ्थापन द्वितीय प्रमोशन मंच से और अपनी ओर भी सुरक्षा की ओर बढ़ चला है V M three and six rocket.
[01:23:40] Speaker B: Talk about some some dopamine.
[01:23:42] Speaker F: दोनों बहुत हो जाते वाले हैं two hundred boosters scheduled हैं। तब टेस्ट का कार्य होगा और इस तरह के लगभग के 80 किलो न्यूटन प्राउद उत्पन्न कर रहे हैं। वेरी ट्रेनिंग। कौन से ट्रेनिंग ऑफ़ ट्रेन एस का मार्केट मोटर? कल को आज के दिन में ना तो बहुत ही साफ़ नजारा देखने को मिल रहा होगा। अभी अपना देखो, बहुत ही रोमांचक आरोप हो रहा होगा। बहुत दूर तक हम चार्ट को देख पा रहे हैं और ओके है। ठीक है। Each S-200 motor can rate 5,952 kilonewtons. Propulsion duration for present mission is 132.5 seconds.
[01:24:50] Speaker B: I don't like when they go quiet.
[01:24:52] Speaker F: याना प्रेस है देर। दिशा का दान कटे हुए अपनी मिशन को पूरा करने के लिए एग्रेसर है। You are hundred eleven seconds into the flight.
[01:25:04] Speaker B: Kathy, someone asked why is it going sideways?
[01:25:07] Speaker G: Do you know?
[01:25:11] Speaker C: That's just the camera angle. You can see now on the screen.
[01:25:14] Speaker E: Yeah.
[01:25:15] Speaker F: Okay.
[01:25:18] Speaker B: There's a lot of foreign people in my chat.
[01:25:20] Speaker P: Pretty cool to see.
[01:25:21] Speaker B: I knew too. We have over 500 people.
[01:25:24] Speaker C: It's actually a lot of Koreans.
[01:25:27] Speaker E: Okay, let's let's go.
[01:25:29] Speaker F: Just now we have had a confirmation of the separation of the two S-200 boosters.
[01:25:36] Speaker C: Range operation निदेशक द्वारा इसकी पुष्टि की गई। दोनों S-200 booster को यान से पिथक कर दिया गया है। नए लगे जेट स्नेक मोटर की मदद से उसे यान से सब उल्टा पूर्वक और सुरक्षा पूर्वक प्रथक कर दिया जाता है। We are hundred sixty seconds into the flight, current altitude hundred four kilometers. Looking good, boosters are gone. वर्तमान में L one ten यानि beautiful.
[01:26:07] Speaker F: Oh yeah.
[01:26:13] Speaker C: यहाँ से यहाँ से उष्मा कवच को पिथक कर दिया गया है। अब यहाँ 123 किलोमीटर की ऊंचाई पर प्राप्त कर चुका है। वर्तमान में यहाँ से गाइडेंस के अंदर कर। Working good.
[01:26:40] Speaker B: For people on YouTube, can you hear me and my audio? Just confirm. And welcome all the Koreans in the chat. You guys could all subscribe while you're here too. I'd appreciate that a lot.
[01:27:31] Speaker C: This is exciting. I guess there's a, a red dot there, which is when maybe the next stage ignites.
[01:27:50] Speaker B: So exciting.
[01:27:51] Speaker C: Oh, stop. हमारे किस काटा हुआ, अभी चितपटकानों कर कटा हुआ, ये बढ़ाने कार्य में so exciting.
[01:28:16] Speaker B: I love those like old school looking scans they use, like like this view right here, that's so cool.
[01:28:22] Speaker C: That's good. All right, we got ignition of the final stage.
[01:28:25] Speaker P: Nice.
[01:28:26] Speaker C: This is it. This is inevitability. Commercial service 2026. After we place BBC. Let's go. And 58 more satellites will go up this year, hopefully.
[01:28:53] Speaker B: Yeah, right. This is, this is just the start. This is the start of something, something special right here. And it is crazy to think that, like, when the launch— last launch was to this now. And Well, this is going to kick off. Oh, I hope the shorts are ready.
[01:29:18] Speaker D: So the reason people are looking relieved is that the most risky parts are done. The 3rd and last stage has ignited successfully, and it's confirmed. And, uh, We'll have to wait some 10 minutes before Bluebird Block 2 will separate from the upper third and last stage.
[01:30:01] Speaker B: Very, very cool. The, uh, the way it's separated is super, um, so I assume that's controlled with a launcher or with a control switch somewhere?
[01:30:14] Speaker C: No, it's probably automated. You guys can see in the diagram there, we've got quite a bit of distance until satellite separation.
[01:30:52] Speaker B: It's happening, guys.
[01:30:53] Speaker E: So cool.
[01:30:55] Speaker B: This is that Uber Batuu, baby.
[01:31:03] Speaker C: I mean, what's going to be really cool too is seeing, seeing multiple go up on the next few rockets as well. But yeah, this is— what a way to kick this off. And what I would add is that This is a, this is like a historic event in India. This is groundbreaking. Or ISRO and the program, the space program there. I mean, this is a huge branding event for them that they're taking up such an important and expensive and monumental payload. This is a huge accomplishment for their country. And I think, as we've probably seen in some of the media recently, it's been all over the press that ISRO is taking up this American groundbreaking GEO satellite. It's a big source of pride. And as I tweeted earlier today, you know, you've got 1.5 billion people who are going to be reading this in the news and seeing it on TV. And of course, we recently partnered with Vodafone Idea, which is VI in India, that's the MNO that we'll be working with. And so you can bet that this is going to be splashed everywhere, that this is the first step of putting together constellation to launch commercial service in India, which if you can imagine the coverage gaps that we have here in India, there's quite a bit of areas where there is no There is no internet connectivity, broadband or fixed wireless or mobile for that matter. And so this is going to be huge.
[01:32:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I saw that today when I watched the Indian news coverage. I was actually pretty shocked at how much of a historic kind of thing they're looking at. And honestly, it's something for them and ISRO to be super proud of. You just launched Like the biggest low Earth orbit satellite ever and kind of kicked off what's going to be a legendary change for this company and where it goes from here. And the fact that one already shipped off just shows you that the team's not playing around now. They have these satellites figured out, they're making 6 a month, and now it's time to send them up. Do you guys think that we would use them as launch partners again? Because it seems like Like it seems like everything's going well, and if everything is like already integrated, if we're making that many a month, why not just ship one off there?
[01:33:46] Speaker J: You know.
[01:33:52] Speaker C: Sorry, I'm just listening to the announcer. She's talking about AST. Yes, that's it.
[01:34:12] Speaker B: This launch party looks fun. Look at all the, the like school trips out there.
[01:34:28] Speaker C: There's an AST employee there.
[01:34:39] Speaker G: Let's go.
[01:34:42] Speaker B: That guy's like, yep.
[01:35:09] Speaker E: There it goes.
[01:35:10] Speaker B: It's still amazing to me, just the pure, like, way to track all this. It's so, it's so fascinating.
[01:35:36] Speaker C: Yeah, so what you were asking before, I'm not sure we'll launch another one on ISRO, at least in the near term, but I guess it's possible if they're, if they are able to increase capacity. And I guess I would add that LVM-3 is a powerful rocket, but they're in the development of basically creating a comparable reusable rocket to Falcon 9. And so once they get that rocket going, I could certainly see us using that one. But I think from an economic perspective, using LVM-3 is quite pricey for dedicated launch unless you can get maybe 2 or to composite Bluebirds on it. But yeah, I mean, I think utilizing LVM3 was part of the way to open up commercial access in India, signing on Vodafone Idea, but also from regulatory standpoint.
[01:36:31] Speaker D: Which is at the target altitude, but accelerating. It's the way satellite stays up.
[01:36:40] Speaker E: Right.
[01:36:40] Speaker C: They've got to get to 17,000 miles per hour, right?
[01:36:44] Speaker D: High enough velocity.
[01:36:46] Speaker F: Right.
[01:36:48] Speaker D: Higher speed, the closer they get to Earth, or they'll drop. So just a couple of minutes left and then there will be payload separation.
[01:37:04] Speaker F: Yeah.
[01:37:05] Speaker D: Its upper stage is made in India. Pride of the Indian nation. Earlier upper stage engines, Krayevnik, they used in the GSLV Mark 2 had problems. They were made in Russia. So they developed their own. They got it right because it has worked every time they've used it. So looking very good so far.
[01:37:38] Speaker C: Oh, I can hear it.
[01:37:41] Speaker D: This is just in the chat.
[01:37:42] Speaker B: Gregory said, I see clapping equals bullish.
[01:37:50] Speaker C: Yeah, there is a speaker. Every time he says performance nominal, people clap, which means everything's going according to plan. Oh, here we go.
[01:38:26] Speaker D: Oof, here we go.
[01:38:29] Speaker I: Send it.
[01:38:35] Speaker C: There we go.
[01:38:37] Speaker A: Separation.
[01:38:37] Speaker C: Holy shit.
[01:38:44] Speaker A: Beautiful.
[01:38:44] Speaker B: Huh, that's, that's so cool.
[01:38:58] Speaker O: Beautiful.
[01:38:58] Speaker B: So after separation, is that good? It's in orbit, ready to go? Ready to unfurl once they deem conditions?
[01:39:07] Speaker C: It's going to take some time. They're going to, yeah, they'll have to get it orientated properly. I mean, Katzen can tell you, and then run system checks. Um, it, it could be days, weeks before they, they get to a point where they're comfortable to unfold the satellite.
[01:39:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I, I remember last time, um, the, uh, like, don't they want the, uh, like all, all the conditions up in space gotta kind of line up, which is completely understandable.
[01:39:39] Speaker C: Yeah, you don't wanna take any risks. But that, man, that's beautiful. They separated. Oh, they're back to the livestream.
[01:39:48] Speaker B: Let's see what they're saying. Some little thank you messages. Passionate community, baby. That's us. See you at the next launch.
[01:40:20] Speaker C: Captain's gonna have to go back through that video and take apart some of the stuff that was in it.
[01:40:27] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, right. I love that, the little thank yous at the end.
[01:40:34] Speaker C: Yeah, that was, that was a nice touch. Nice little touch. Thank you.
[01:40:39] Speaker B: There's a bunch of, uh, requests in here. I'm going to let some people in and feel free to come share some thoughts or ask us questions. Kind of, we're just kind of hyped now. Like, mission success.
[01:40:51] Speaker N: We got what we wanted.
[01:40:53] Speaker B: So what's going on, guys? What's, what's going on, Socrates? It's cool to see you in here. Hey, thanks, man.
[01:41:00] Speaker C: Yeah, I just wanted to say. Merry Christmas to Space Mob, and we're wrap, you know, wrapping gifts for the kids, and the satellites over the head. You know, like I said earlier today, and it's just amazing to see, and I just wanted to say appreciate everything, and you guys are awesome. So that's all I had to say.
[01:41:19] Speaker E: Thank you.
[01:41:21] Speaker B: Oh yeah, appreciate a lot, man.
[01:41:24] Speaker C: I said earlier today, and it's just amazing to see, and.
[01:41:32] Speaker B: So with, um, so moving forward— oh, hey Jacob, what's going on, man? You feel free to come up and talk.
[01:41:42] Speaker C: Oh, what's up, man?
[01:41:43] Speaker K: What's up, guys?
[01:41:44] Speaker I: Congrats to you.
[01:41:44] Speaker C: That loss, that loss was beautiful. It worked out great.
[01:41:47] Speaker N: Um, beautiful.
[01:41:48] Speaker C: Yeah, dude, it was awesome.
[01:41:50] Speaker K: Uh, I just, uh, I had just come up to say, um, Earlier that that Alex guy that I met at the airport that was crazy yesterday or on Sunday or yeah on Monday flying he worked just happened to be passing through yeah yeah I just happened to be like where I just saw a guy in an AC space mobile shirt I was like oh hey look and I was like I pointed my hat because I wanted to be funny he ended up being a worker there yeah oh that's cool yeah I picked up his Yeah, I picked up his. I picked up his tab and said it was from Space Water Bank too. That was.
[01:42:24] Speaker A: I was.
[01:42:25] Speaker K: Thanks for that idea, Panpanman. Um, yeah, I just. I just came up to say that was awesome. Great launch and fuck socks ripping overnight.
[01:42:32] Speaker E: So congrats, guys.
[01:42:33] Speaker K: I'm. I'm happy.
[01:42:38] Speaker B: That's. That's awesome to hear. Oh yeah, that.
[01:42:41] Speaker E: That is.
[01:42:42] Speaker B: I am yet to see anyone like kind of out in the public in a. In any space mobile stuff. I wear it all the time and the people at work are always like, what are you wearing? Then I give 'em the whole rundown and they're like, that's not gonna work.
[01:42:57] Speaker C: Oh yeah, I wear it.
[01:42:58] Speaker K: So I mean, I've been in Rock Lab longer, so I have more gear from them, but I wear it all the time, especially when I travel stuff too. I've run into people in the, like, that are like working in the industry, like that I have random conversations about people that are working on like, you know, bespoke private companies, something like that. It's a great conversation starter to wear your gear, especially Especially like going forward, like people are gonna know when they see that, what that is. It's, it's a, it's a fun, it's a fun like way of getting that conversation started with people. 'Cause you never know, like somebody that sees it could be like, you know, completely in that, like, like could have, could have some information. I, not information, but it's just, it's a fun way to get, get the conversation started with people. So yeah. Um, rep it whenever you travel and stuff like that.
[01:43:38] Speaker F: It's cool. Right.
[01:43:40] Speaker B: We gotta rep it and. It's fun getting people interested because space investing, like my dad's a bit older. When I explained this to him, he's like, how do you even know about this? So it's very fun. So one thing I did want to touch on, 'cause I come from like a pretty strong marketing background is, I mean, and Panman was DMing me about it, it's like the production quality now. So, and Pan, but what'd you think of those videos?
[01:44:05] Speaker C: They were, Really good. I mean, we've come a long way since Blue Walker 3. So I remember Blue Walker 3, they were having technical issues 'cause they, they did a lot of interviews live, whereas here, um, they, you know, all this was prerecorded. Um, but yeah, it was very—
[01:44:24] Speaker B: Kind of like me starting the stream today.
[01:44:25] Speaker C: Oh, what's that?
[01:44:28] Speaker B: Kind of like me starting the stream today. That was my, that was my Blue Walker 3. The next one's gonna be fire.
[01:44:33] Speaker P: Yeah.
[01:44:33] Speaker B: But it still, it still worked out.
[01:44:35] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:44:35] Speaker C: Yeah. But I think, um, I mean, clearly the company has matured, right? Like we're, we're at a different stage. We're not, um, this tiny startup company anymore. We're, we're big and we're about to launch commercial service, which is super exciting. So, so yeah, huge difference.
[01:44:51] Speaker G: Yeah.
[01:44:53] Speaker B: That's the thing is like the team kind of, they probably have felt that they had the need to kind of get that content out there. So when people are looking at this, And you hear space mobile, you can look at those commercials and relate to these people like being being stuck out needing service. The way they touched on the government applications was super cool, and it is funny thinking back to the term or like when the when they stopped just saying oh this is like the first ever broadband cellular network to they started just including in every earnings and defense. US defense work, and highlighting that I think is key. And I hope, and I think that gets a lot of people super interested in this product. So, Katzy, kind of what did you think of those videos? And I know you enjoyed them and have a lot to dissect. I think we lost Katzy, but he deserves some rest.
[01:45:53] Speaker C: Yeah, he might have dropped.
[01:45:55] Speaker B: Yeah, it's probably what, 5 AM there? So yeah, does anyone else in Space Mob want to come up, ask some questions? We have a lot of people in here. Or Anapen, is there any kind of topics you want to talk about? I'm happy to kind of keep talking AST. Got a lot of people in here, so feel free to hop up anyone and throw out any topics.
[01:46:18] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I think It'll be interesting to see what the company does from here on. I would assume, you know, once you have an event like that happen, then people ask, well, what's next? And it's good. I'm glad you asked that because we've got Bluebird 7 on its way to Cape Canaveral lined up for launch. That's probably going to happen in about 30 days. And then we We could possibly have 2 batches of Bluebirds, batches of 3 being completed before December 31st, because we heard Jennifer Manner speak about how—
[01:46:59] Speaker B: 6 a day.
[01:47:00] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, she intimated we're at 6 a month. And so yeah, that would then extrapolate out to probably 2 launches in February. And then to round that out, we'll probably have one more launch before the end of March, which would get us to 5. And then the company's talked about up to 13 for 2026. So there'll be 8 more. And so yeah, it's shaping up to be a strong start to the year. Obviously this is kicking it off. And I think, as I mentioned earlier, we've got a number of other milestones that are coming up, which is the FCC should come to a decision around granting access to our US market application, which will be sometime in January, potentially early February. And then as I've talked about before, we've got $175 million revenue prepayment coming in from Saudi Telecom, which will be before the end of this year. And then Yeah, we've got potentially a few more MNOs that are going to be signed up. And yeah, there's just like every day more news. So like FirstNet, there was an article this past week where it talked about how they are allocating funds to build out the, you know, make sure that the first responder network is more robust and satellite direct-to-cell connectivity is a key part of that. So I know we've all been saying this, but that commercial agreement with FirstNet is coming sooner or later. And FirstNet actually hinted at it. There was a video 2 weeks ago that talked about, that showed a demonstration with a few city, state, and federal first responder organizations. And in that video, the FirstNet, whoever runs the account said, stay tuned for more partnerships.
[01:48:58] Speaker F: Yeah.
[01:48:58] Speaker C: program updates. And so I don't know, like, I, if people didn't see, um, Scott Wozniacki before launch, uh, he added to his tweet with him riding, with Santa riding the truck. He, he, he tweeted a video with like 6, 6 rockets. And so he must be pretty happy that there's probably, um, there's probably more stuff coming. So yeah, it's an exciting time.
[01:49:22] Speaker B: Yeah, the fact that this was like, so like usually at least over my trading career, the end of December is like, I don't know, unless there is a Santa rally. I don't really know if the Santa rally is a thing. It gets talked about every year. But I just remember like in my trading days, I always remember like the end of the year, I was like, okay, like play it easy. It's a little slow. But the fact that like ASE is hitting these milestones, like at the end of the year, like is there a better way to start 2026?
[01:49:53] Speaker C: No, this is great. And as I've talked about in other spaces, you've got, you know, it looks like inflation's tamed, you've got interest rates coming down, and you've got the Trump administration saying that space and 6G superiority is a key focus of this administration. So you couldn't ask for a better environment for the company to launch such a constellation. And to execute. And so I think, you know, I put this chart out of this fractal pattern of where AST could get near term, but I do think like we are on target to, you know, meet and breach probably $200 a share sometime this year, perhaps earlier than the end of the year. But I don't often say prices out there.
[01:50:41] Speaker B: Yeah, right. I was kind of surprised hearing that for a second.
[01:50:43] Speaker C: But I do think $200 in the card. So you can—
[01:50:46] Speaker B: Right. Mark it, put it on the slate.
[01:50:51] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:50:51] Speaker E: Bread rum.
[01:50:52] Speaker B: If you're listing anywhere, put it on a t-shirt.
[01:50:53] Speaker C: Because I think once, as Scott has mentioned, this coming year we've got most of the revenues will be government related. And as we've talked about it earlier, I think, you know, Golden Dome's going to be a big part of that. And, you know, the company has already said, Government's going to be a big contributor this year, and then next year, and they've talked about hundreds of millions, and then next year, that's when commercial revenues are really going to start kicking in. And so once the constellation's up and we've turned on a few markets, you're going to see the financial snowball come in. And so yeah, very exciting. I mean, this is— For anybody who's been invested in the stock, this has been 5 years in the making and now this is it. Like, this is the moment you've all been waiting for.
[01:51:47] Speaker B: Yeah, honestly. And with what you're saying with like interest rates coming down, Trump presidency, obviously like space trying to keep interest rates down, kind of keep this like they're investing tons of money into these companies trying to keep AI advancing and the space sector advancing strongly. And it's like, yeah, if we did launch more years back under the Biden administration, when space wasn't as hot of a topic, it's like, could this have even taken off? Like, could this have taken off to the same extent? And probably not. But now that we are seeing this, and to the extent that we are with all this interest in the space industry, And like Rocket Lab too, I think they're super poised to kind of take advantage of this with the SpaceX IPO. And like, that's just another thing looking to 2026. It's like, it's hard to believe. Like, it seems like we've been on here like just preaching and spreading all this information for so many years. And it's like, we've seen the space industry, but now seeing like these big headlines and like crazy valuations, it's like, whoa, like the space stuff like is here and it's coming and there's no way to really escape it anymore.
[01:53:02] Speaker C: Yeah, I think that's right. I think SpaceX, the IPO is going to bring a lot of interest to the sector and a lot of investment dollars. So yeah, 2026, you couldn't ask for a better environment. And so I think the sky's the limit, or space is the limit.
[01:53:23] Speaker B: Katzy. Katzy's back. Shout out Katzy. I'd like to hear what you're excited for this coming year ahead most.
[01:53:43] Speaker C: I'm not sure.
[01:53:45] Speaker B: I'm not getting a quick value.
[01:53:47] Speaker C: I can't hear him either.
[01:53:49] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:53:56] Speaker B: I did have someone DM me, and they wanted to hear— they wanted to hear you talk back to the contrast of now to the current days. Like, how do you feel about it in terms of like confidence, or just like, do you just have a different mindset for the company?
[01:54:14] Speaker C: Oh, what do you mean? Compared to the early days?
[01:54:18] Speaker B: Like, like to like the early days, like, like they just wanted to, they just said like, can you reminisce and take us back to like how you were feeling then? How do you feel like now? And kind of a shorter—
[01:54:28] Speaker C: The early days, there was a lot of uncertainty, right? Like before any satellites were launched and then it was unclear where the company was going to get funding. I mean, they had money to a degree. But there wasn't funding. They had M&O partners, but before BlueWalker 3 launched, yeah, it was all a concept still, right? And they had tested with BlueWalker 1, which was sending up a cell phone up in a satellite and then having the large phased array on Earth. And so it was a brilliant way to economically and efficiently test if the system worked, which they accomplished. But then back then, yeah, that we all had stars in our eyes and we're like, oh, we'll eventually get there. And I don't think, you know, Cook and I have talked about this. Like we actually spoke with a space expert not named Tim Ferriss and got their opinion and they were like, oh, you know, this is certainly, it seems possible, but there's going to be a lot of ups and downs and funding's going to be an issue. And he kind of went through this laundry list and I think We were still like anybody, you know, optimists, right? And we were like, okay, well, I think the opportunity is huge here and the company will make it. Like, we've got a great owner-operator and he's motivated. And, you know, what really did it for me was the strategic partners like AT&T, Vodafone, and others. And so, but back then it was, there was a ton of risk and I don't think anybody including probably the company as well. I don't think anybody saw how difficult it would be. And in 2020 and 2021, funding was there, the markets were wide open. But then once 2022 hit, and there's criticisms, like people will say, oh, they didn't meet their SPAC projections. Well, when the market shut off for funding in 2022, like the company had to slow down, they had to slow their development process and any number of things, right? Like they had to conserve cash. And so they made it through the valley of death until the end of 2023 when they raised money with AT&T, Vodafone, and Google. And then they had to do that painful equity offering of $100 million to bridge themselves to get to that. That was January 2024. They had to do that painful $100 million equity offering. They sold, get this, 33 million shares at $3.50 apiece.
[01:56:55] Speaker B: Oh my gosh. Whoever bought those.
[01:56:58] Speaker C: Yeah, but they had to do that. And then that tied them over to get Verizon, which took their sweet time. But Verizon joined in at the end of May and the rest is history, right? Like the stock went from $2 to $4, $5, $6, $7, $8, $10, $12. It peaked at $39 that summer. And so that was a huge game changer. It was a big validation point where I think all the skeptics were like, okay, the fact that Verizon diligenced this and they chose AST over Starlink and they're choosing to work with AT&T and they're not only just putting money in, they're contributing 850 megahertz spectrum. That was huge. And that's what really changed the narrative and the The trajectory of the company. And so I think Michael Pollack, who's the head of defense business for AST, talks about how once they brought Verizon on board, like all the defense organizations started calling the company back and the phones started ringing off the hook because that was like a true point of validation and that, hey, these guys are going to make it. Like it's not just a concept, but they're getting backed by AT&T and Verizon. And of course, like, you know, Google and Vodafone and others. And so yeah, fast forward to today, it is true. It's like everybody kind of looks back and says, well, you know, at $2 or $3, that would've been awesome. Like, I wish I'd bought more there. And it's like, well, no, they weren't easy buys back then because the company, for all intents and purposes, was, you know, the funding, they had more than 12 months of funding, but it was unclear and they were supposed to to put up this massive constellation, like, where's that money going to come from? And there were a lot of uncertainties. And so I think as we know in investing, buying shares here is actually in many ways a lot easier, right? Because the company has over $3 billion of cash, has all these partners, has demonstrated this technology, has 6 satellites now, 7, including BlueWalker 3. Orbiting the Earth and is about to embark on a multi-launch campaign with over, you know, with Blue Origin and SpaceX and ISRO. We've overbooked our launches and so launch capacity shouldn't be an issue. And so we should get to at a minimum 45 satellites, maybe up to 60 this coming year. And so yeah, it's an exciting time. I guess the other thing I would say is back then in 2021, 2022, You know, Katzi was early on about this, the military use cases, and some of us had talked about the potential ideas, but military was not really a key driver of the business or an opportunity, at least back then. And when Katzi would talk about it at length, we were, everyone would kind of be like, okay, yeah, that, I guess that could make sense. But it was like so far-fetched. Given where we were financially and in terms of business development, it's like, okay, I'm not sure I can ascribe much value to it. But then fast forward to today, you've got commercial, you've got government, and then you've got military use case, which now it seems abundantly clear or crystal clear, like this company's technology has a massive edge over competitors and then adversaries. And so Yeah, it's a much different time. There was so much uncertainty back then and self-doubt, like just questioning, is this company going to make it? Am I crazy? Am I, have I put too much faith into this? And then coming out on the other end, as all of you can understand, it's like—
[02:00:39] Speaker H: Huge.
[02:00:40] Speaker C: You're, it's amazing that you stick with your conviction and come out on the other end and It's validated and it's beautiful. Yeah. You feel great for friends and family. You feel great for the company. Yeah.
[02:00:57] Speaker E: What a journey.
[02:00:57] Speaker B: Katzie, are you still with us? I see he's trying to speak. I don't think it's working. I was going to ask him a question about something you're Speaking of. But, um, so yeah, I kind of, you reminiscing on the past, I was just thinking like, um, so when this thing did kind of SPAC and start going crazy, I was super into it because I just saw like the need for this service. Like everyone wants service everywhere. Like I came at it from a very just like obvious standpoint where I was like, wow, this is something that eventually everyone's going to need. I go camping a lot. I like to stay connected because I'll go camping, I want to watch something or listen to some music.
[02:01:46] Speaker C: You get stuck.
[02:01:47] Speaker B: So, and I remember selling, like, been investing for a while, but I just remember selling shares of like Apple and Square back because I was just like selling like Fidelity Tech. I was like, I just want ASTS because this is something that's going to be amazing. And then 2021, 2022 just kind of got stuck. And I remember very specifically, Coming, I, like, it came to a point in these years, like I still had the account, it was like AST Stock Investors and where I'd still post and share all the info, but I just remember kind of clocking out for a little bit. And then I got back from my honeymoon and then like I checked the news and it was, the stock was ripping and it was like, I think we announced like a launch with SpaceX, probably BlueWalker 3. And the stock ripped from like $6 to $11. And this was like the highest my portfolio was in years. And I was like, oh my gosh. And then little would I know it would fall back. But still, it just goes to show you is like back then I was losing my mind saying my portfolio just reached the highest point in 2 years over a ride from $6 to $11. What, like, if you look at the stock this morning, we saw like a 5% swing or a $5 swing within a minute. And it's really crazy to put that into perspective now when you see these swings and you think AST was stuck at $4 or $5 for years. And I think that's, it's really us who did stick through and kind of seeing this mission unfolds definitely deserve it. And everyone in the community who does like spread the knowledge, because through my investing years, like mostly trading, but like you just see people pumping, not really pumping, but just talking about all these new stocks, this new AI stock, this, all these new stocks, but you never really seen a community come together like this and share some like true True due diligence. And the fact that Katzi and Pan and Cook were getting stuff right before like the company even talked about it, I can't even wrap my head around, but here we are. Katzi, I'm not sure if your mic's still working, but if anyone wanted to come up and ask any questions, now's a good time to do so. I'm going to take a look at my list. I had a few more topics. Or like, hey, Amit, do you have a question?
[02:04:30] Speaker H: I just wanted to share how thankful I am to the community. I started investing in ASTS when it was NPA, the SPAC.
[02:04:40] Speaker B: Nice.
[02:04:41] Speaker H: I did. I bought a lot of stock. I sold a lot of stock, made a bit of profit, made a bit of loss. lost all of the confidence, bought back the stock at $3, but bought very little stock, right? And I saw it rip till $12, $14, sold a lot of stock again, right? But, uh, Katsy, uh, Cook, and, and, and Penman, everyone, right? All, all the time they were trying to spread the knowledge, and I had the knowledge, but I didn't have that confidence, right? So I didn't make a lot of money then, but then you taught me a good lesson. So I invested a good deal of amount, I think a year or a year and a half back. It was a significant portion of my net worth. And now I am almost 3x up on my investments this year itself, right? It feels great. And even when Hold as the lesson of taking profits when the stock reached 102. I still hold on to my nerves and did not sell, did not sell when it went back to 50. And it feels great to still ride the wave, right? And I feel very confident that we are going to do great things. I just wanted to share my experience with everyone and wanted to thank everyone in the community for helping us ride a very difficult wave, right?
[02:06:08] Speaker C: It is 5 years.
[02:06:09] Speaker H: I've seen ups and downs, was very disappointed, and I lost a bunch of money on HTS as well, right? But I think it has been worth it. So just wanted to thank everyone in the community.
[02:06:22] Speaker C: Hey, thanks for sharing, Mitt.
[02:06:24] Speaker L: Congratulations.
[02:06:24] Speaker C: Yeah, it's been an emotional roller coaster, and I think, um, I think everybody who's invested in the company has experienced every emotion emotion possible.
[02:06:35] Speaker P: Right.
[02:06:36] Speaker C: And so I think in your case, yeah, by the way, like I'm not telling people, I don't tell people to like sell your entire position, but what I've told, said, and I continue to this day is, you know, if it's your, whatever you invested or if you've multiplied your previous net worth, it does make sense at some point, like set a goal and then set it, sell your net worth previously so that you've locked that in, or maybe you have a goal of 2 times your net worth, you sell that part and then you just ride the rest, right? And of course you have to set aside some for taxes, but I think, yeah, I mean, I've heard so many stories from people who have secured their retirement or they've secured generational wealth and It's just gratifying to hear because I think people come out and thank me or Katzi or Cook and of course Steve and Tut and all kinds of other people. But I think it's important to recognize this is a community and it's distributed and everybody's kind of here to contribute in their own special way. And I don't think anybody would've made it this far and You know, there were times when Katzi had concerns or I had concerns or Kook. And if it wasn't just, for example, like Steve Larison was such a big and giving character where there were times when, you know, I think as someone who shares due diligence, you do feel a high level of responsibility. And when the stock went to 2, you felt like, oh man, did I lead people the wrong way? I must have, you know, I was wrong on this. And there were some pretty dark times back then. And I remember Stig Larsson checking in with me, even calling me and just having a conversation and just making sure I was okay. And that's like, you know, beyond monetary things, beyond this stock. I mean, in some ways, like this stock is something of interest and it's brought us together. And the side benefit is like this tremendous financial reward, which has been unbelievable. But the friendships and then just having this common interest, because I, it's weird, it's like I have, I probably have a more daily connection with people in the Space Mob than any friends in real life. And so, but yeah, it's been a tremendous 5 years and it's great to hear stories like that where I think this company, it's It's cool because like we're supporting this company in their mission and it's actually a good mission to bring connectivity to those who are unconnected. And for my personal life, I'm going to know that my family is safe because they're going to have connectivity no matter where they are. But yeah, it's cool to be invested in a company like that where you're changing the world, right? And you're bringing broadband connectivity to people who otherwise wouldn't have it. And so, wow, what a unique, unique journey. So thanks, Amit, for sharing. I really appreciate it.
[02:09:50] Speaker H: And thank you. I just had one question in the presentation, right? They mentioned that they had an agreement with Singapore Defence Corporation, right? They were exploring. Was this mentioned anywhere in their investor relations talks before or presentation? This is the first time I'm hearing this.
[02:10:11] Speaker C: Yeah, there was a PR, I think it was like over the summer, maybe it was a tweet, but I can go back and find it. But yeah, they announced that, I think it wasn't a full press release or maybe, yeah, actually maybe it was, but yeah, I think it was over the summer, but yeah, the company, I guess the only criticism I would have with the company is that there's so much going on. Um, they, they tend to be press shy. Like they will only PR the big stuff, which is actually good because like the company is not about being overpromotional, but sometimes these smaller things kind of get lost in the cracks.
[02:10:50] Speaker H: Sure. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it.
[02:10:52] Speaker F: Thank you.
[02:10:52] Speaker B: I think that like, just, just hearing you both talk there, I think it really shows that this, this community is, is special in unique ways that we all have this kind of Like we've definitely built, seen these swings. We definitely have this like mental toughness that we've taught ourself and for a common purpose. Like my one friend who just kind of recently got to investing, he talks to me about it and I'm just, he's like, oh, I'm going to try to sell when it's 80, rebuy when it's 40. And I just tell him, I've watched this stock for so long, I don't really care where it swings. If the constellation is not like up and running, I'm not really gonna think about it like that because why spend every day like staring at the stock price? Oh, I hope it's this. Oh, I want to make this. It's just good to look at the mission overall and teach yourself that mental kind of toughness. So when it does drop like that, you can say, if you do have money that's deployable, like if it drops from 80 to 48, it's like, okay, this is a good opportunity. I love this company. I spend all my waking hours thinking of this company. I can add more at a more reasonable price and then just wait it out because we know where this mission's headed. So why kind of get in your own head about it? Why always be like worked up over it? I think it's good to relax and just be happy. Like hearing Amit's story there, it's like so many of these investors have tried to trade it, have seen it go all these different crazy ways. But people who have believed in the company and just have kind of held and have taught themselves are now kind of have taught themselves this mental toughness. And I think it's very impressive. So we do have a question here from Stock Meetups. Hey, how's it going?
[02:12:49] Speaker L: Hey, good, man. Hey, congrats to Anpanman.
[02:12:54] Speaker B: Yeah, go right ahead.
[02:12:57] Speaker G: Yeah, we salute.
[02:12:58] Speaker L: About my story.
[02:13:00] Speaker G: Yeah.
[02:13:01] Speaker L: So, so first thing is I'm super happy. One for ISRO, second is for ASTS, especially because ISRO is the same state where I was born when I was— so ISRO and DRDO are the two Important key institutions for Indian government. They started investing back in late '90s to become really good in terms of. I think you might have to see this. Yeah, I'm yeah. So I'm I'm I'm really excited for ISRO, especially you know. So coming to the stage. Um, and, uh, doing the biggest launch for them. And I'm expecting a tweet from the Prime Minister as well, because he generally wants to do some kind of PR and marketing for ISRO because he actually just tweeted. Oh, that's good.
[02:13:59] Speaker O: Yeah.
[02:13:59] Speaker L: That's what I was saying in, in, in another group to, uh, Modi.
[02:14:03] Speaker C: Prime Minister Modi.
[02:14:05] Speaker B: Oh, nice. Oh, really? That's awesome.
[02:14:07] Speaker O: Yeah.
[02:14:08] Speaker L: I was just texting to And then in other group, hey, you know, we should tag Modi because he will generally tweet and we should make that.
[02:14:16] Speaker O: That's awesome.
[02:14:18] Speaker C: He also talked about—
[02:14:19] Speaker B: You manifested it.
[02:14:21] Speaker L: Yeah. So for my story, I mean, we all invested in a lot of SPACs during the SPAC boom back in 2020 and '21. And I've seen my portfolio go down by 80% in '22 and '23, but We held on to the nerve. I started investing in like Locker Lab and ESTS and few other good SPACs which are good founder-led. And I used to chat a lot with Cook and Penman, hey, this is a good concept and etcetera, when are we going to see the big launches? It was really nerve-breaking, but we all held on to the stocks. I was able to keep a lot of warrants. And sometimes warrants went to point, like 20 cents, 10 cents also, and stock went to $2. Still added more, averaged down because I believed in Abel. When I looked at his oral history, how he solved the submarine communication problem with the emerging communication, his previous company, it was pretty impressive. how we try to solve the submarine communication problem because it's a little hard problem to solve. And he doesn't talk too much and, you know, he's very, very focused on it. And then when ISRO started being part of this whole, you know, ASTS, it got very exciting as well because for ISRO, this is a big launch. A, they're putting a lot of efforts because if this gets successful, it's good for them as well. To get more business. And especially when I saw the chief head of ISRO going to Tirupati, which is a very famous temple, it's probably one of the top 3 temples in India where close to 150,000 people visit every day. It's one of the very, very important temples. I was super excited seeing it today. And then a couple of months ago when I went to the FOSMET conference just as a you know, and same audience which happened in Bellevue, Washington. I was even more excited because these people were having a lot of problems the first minute and when I was explaining about them to ASTS and etcetera, you know, some people knew it, some people didn't know it. So I was saying, okay, we are too early, so that's good. I mean, so we are still in the early game, so we are investing into a great tech. And the space EO, the overall, you know, what the big beautiful bill, I think it will come into effect on January 1st, which is next week. And the National Defense Authorization, it's, it's, and the rate cuts and Jared Isaacman. I think we have everything lined up at the right time. I think someone was saying if this, all of these things happened in the previous administration, Yeah, you won't get this kind of push. I think we are— and now, how US is trying to compete, especially in all the markets, especially on the commercial defense, agricultural and robotics, drone technology. The ASTAs will be very useful, even though they are doing right now 5G. And then there was an EOA signed, which was yesterday, if I'm not wrong. on the 6G as well as a national security, I'm thinking ESTs will play a very, very vital role on that aspect. And the other important thing, because I work in AI and data center to an extent. So especially on the AI side, if you look at it, right, there is probably RDW and ESTs who are building large solar arrays, right?
[02:18:09] Speaker E: Yeah.
[02:18:10] Speaker L: And the tech that these folks have built, management of the large solar tech or the, or the solar arrays, that is very, very critical even for data centers too. So I may not be surprised if there would be some partnership of ASTS with some other big place. I mean, so Google is already an investor. Who knows, you know, like Sundar and somebody else would be already discussing about launching their data center space with some of the tech ASCS has built for larger solar arrays because they know that spec and they are, you know, so I'm super psyched up with all the opportunities what we have.
[02:18:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[02:18:49] Speaker G: Yeah.
[02:18:49] Speaker C: No, it's an exciting time. So I guess from your perspective, since you know a lot of people there, what do you think is the impact of this? Because I know this is a historic and extraordinary event for India and a big sort of pride, but I guess how do you think it— does this spread awareness for the company and how are people in India viewing this event?
[02:19:14] Speaker L: I think one, right, first thing is I don't know whether AST is already logged in a partner yet in India.
[02:19:23] Speaker C: They do have a partnership with Vodafone, right? Airtel, right?
[02:19:26] Speaker F: Yeah.
[02:19:27] Speaker H: Vodafone.
[02:19:27] Speaker F: Yeah.
[02:19:28] Speaker L: Yeah. I think, but once, because like Modi has said this, et cetera, I think this will go into the mainstream with Adani and Ambanis, which are the 2 richest guys there, right? And they have Reliance, the mobile network and the other mobile networks. They're also going to bring—
[02:19:45] Speaker C: Hey, I'm not sure what happened. I think AST Space Mob, I think he shut it down by the other one early, but I relaunched. I think he just relaunched. Um, here, let me just tell him to come over here. One second. Okay, he's come back. Let me add Stock Meetups back. Uh, I guess there was technical difficulties.
[02:20:20] Speaker B: I, I think, I think we might've maxed out the time.
[02:20:23] Speaker C: Oh, really? Is there, is there a time max?
[02:20:25] Speaker B: Maybe 4 hours.
[02:20:26] Speaker N: I don't know.
[02:20:28] Speaker C: I don't think there is, because I've, I know people have, um, had these like really long marathon Spaces.
[02:20:34] Speaker B: Got it. Well, yeah, my apologies. I don't know, it just kind of, I, one of my apps said you've been disconnected. I re-clicked, hit the Spaces and it just said, it's, it's over.
[02:20:46] Speaker C: Hey, Stock Meetup. Sorry, you got cut off there.
[02:20:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[02:20:48] Speaker E: Yeah.
[02:20:48] Speaker L: I think it's a huge, yeah, I think it would be a huge push for overall this, I mean, ASTS as a tech, right? Because so far what I've seen in the Indian, you know, when you talk with the normal public there, I mean, so like whenever I visit generally on vacations, they talk about Starlink, but they don't understand the difference between broadband connectivity versus D2C, right? But now with this strong push from Modi and et cetera on the PR, this will become mainstream because First time Israel has launched its largest. And also Israel just, uh, is that they use something new tech for, you know, for the first time. So there'll also be a push for this new tech as well.
[02:21:35] Speaker C: This was the, I think this was the 100th Israel launch, right? Uh, I don't know that part.
[02:21:42] Speaker F: Right.
[02:21:43] Speaker C: There were some like, I think it was, this might've been the 100th launch, but, um, But yeah, I mean, the company AST has been pretty focused on the Indian market. For example, we opened up an office in Hyderabad. Is that how you pronounce it?
[02:21:56] Speaker O: Yeah.
[02:21:57] Speaker C: And then, yeah. And then Vodafone Idea, we signed on recently and, and, you know, we've all speculated that this, this giving them the first Block 2 launch was probably going to, from a political perspective, kind of ease regulatory approvals because we, you know, I think the Indian market in general is, I wouldn't, I don't know if it's notorious, but getting regulatory approval there, for example, for Starlink took a long time. And so I think launching on ISRO and, you know, having an office there and obviously employees there, I think is going to go a long way. But But yeah, that's really cool to hear how this is being, this is viewed by the country.
[02:22:44] Speaker E: Yeah.
[02:22:46] Speaker L: And also the beauty of ASTS, right? When you compare with Starlink or Kuiper is the data doesn't get stored anywhere in ASTS. It's complement, it's actually doing complementary work for the MNOs. That's, I think, so in terms of data and security, et cetera, I don't think Indian government will have a problem because whoever is the MNOs, right? Either Reliance or Airtel or Vodafone India, all those folks will go and work through those bureaucracy problems.
[02:23:21] Speaker F: Right.
[02:23:21] Speaker L: That doesn't, it's not a problem for ASTS. It's a problem for them. But if you look at Starlink, then, you know, Starlink has to go through and they, it's, especially if you are in India and China and if you're in the bureaucratic world, it will be hard for them to trust a non-entity from the country.
[02:23:40] Speaker E: Right, right.
[02:23:43] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. It's, we have a structural advantage, which I think as other countries and carriers roll out Starlink service, they're going to find out.
[02:23:53] Speaker L: Yeah, it's just a matter of fact, right? Because once you get a lot of, let's say like Vodafone implements it as as possible, et cetera, then hey, if, I mean, it's much easier to convince because hey, you look at the neighboring country or the neighboring continent, you have so many folks. It's not just our problem. It becomes much more easy to get the regulatory approvals. I don't know. But for Starlink, it's a different story.
[02:24:21] Speaker C: Yeah, no, I agree. Why don't we, there's a few people who have come up. It is 11:30, so I want to be cognizant of everyone's time, including my own.
[02:24:31] Speaker B: But, uh, yeah, do you want to, do you want to try to wrap this up? Uh, are you good to, to go till 12, go a little longer?
[02:24:35] Speaker C: Yeah, we can go a little longer maybe. Um, I think Rick—
[02:24:40] Speaker B: yeah, what's that?
[02:24:41] Speaker C: See what they got.
[02:24:42] Speaker P: Yeah, yeah, everyone good?
[02:24:45] Speaker F: Hi.
[02:24:46] Speaker P: Yeah, I just, uh, the first thing I want to say was just, uh, really great words by me and you, Anpanman. I thought it was, uh, Really inspiring. The whole thing about the community rings true. You know, it was my friend way back in early 2024 hounding me about ASTS saying, you gotta get in, you gotta get in. It took me a few months after that, but, you know, I'm here now and been along for the ride. So it's really just been, it's been great and it's great to hear from the community. You know, my question here really is just watching this launch, I couldn't help but thinking, I don't love the idea of the rockets being out of my hand. I know it went all well today, but I'm just curious, like, got me thinking, what do you, what are your guys' thoughts on a potential merger between ASTS and Rocket Lab should the Neutron go live?
[02:25:35] Speaker C: That's a good question. I mean, it's, I think it would be kind of tough because Neutron, I don't know the exact specifics, but my guess is if it's comparable to Falcon 9, then you'd, You'd want, or you could launch 3 Bluebirds at a time. But I think the companies are very different, right? And so being fully integrated, because we're working with, I mean, the thing about space companies is that you oftentimes work with competitors. And so there's that possibility that if you did merge with Rocket Lab, you could use their launch, but then you would still indeed Blue Origin New Glenn. But yeah, I mean, I'm not sure there'd be that much in terms of synergy because I think Rocket Lab is focused on launch and they're building different space systems. And I think, yeah, I mean, it's, I don't know if you putting 2 founders that are very entrepreneurial, have a vision of things. I think when you, if you combine just from a organizational perspective and culture point of view, I'm not sure how well those 2 would meld together because obviously one person is, they have a vision and they're used to being in charge. And sometimes when you have these mergers and you have the co-CEO, it's like eventually someone gets pushed out and then perhaps like execution for one side of the business kind of goes by the wayside.
[02:27:08] Speaker O: Yeah.
[02:27:09] Speaker C: Yeah.
[02:27:09] Speaker P: Well, I mean, it'd have to be able, of course.
[02:27:12] Speaker H: Yeah.
[02:27:13] Speaker C: But I think there was some talk today about perhaps Rocket Lab merging with ULA. Like, that deal would make a lot of sense because I think ULA brings a lot to the table. They've got flight heritage and I'm sure there's a lot of interesting things that Rocket Lab can do with ULA. And of course they don't have a CEO now. And so that deal would make a lot more sense than than a SpaceMobile Rocket Lab deal. I don't think Abel's a seller. If he ever did sell, then, you know, you're probably looking at a company that is probably servicing MNOs that's a better fit that way. And so maybe like a Google or an Amazon or someone, an Apple, for example. But yeah, I don't think he's a seller.
[02:28:00] Speaker P: Yeah, no, that makes sense. I think You know, my, my just high-level thought is you get AST and you get Rocket Lab together, you know, that puts you at the scale where you can start to, you know, compete with the likes of like a SpaceX, at least just in terms of pure scale. But, you know, appreciate on the CEO point, I think that makes sense. You mentioned some buyers there. I'm curious, like mentioned Amazon, like what, at what price does this go to Amazon? Like, is that even in the realm of possibility?
[02:28:29] Speaker C: I don't, I mean, I don't think that Abel's a seller, but if he had to sell, or yeah, if he was open to it, a strategic buyer, like I think a Google would be a good fit because they already work with MNOs. They control Android and they service phones and you basically need to be a party that's neutral to MNOs, right? And so I think a Google could work, an Apple would work very well. But then beyond that, if you're talking about an Amazon, I guess the issue there is that you have LEO, which is the renamed Kuiper, and fixed wireless, as we've talked about, Starlink fixed wireless is actually competitive to MNOs, what they're doing around 5G internet at home and then fiber. And so that's not You generally don't want to try to be in competition with your MNOs, which is why I think Starlink has, you know, they've signed on a decent amount of direct-to-cell customers, but then I think no one really trusts Elon or they, you know, they don't want to be in competition with Starlink fixed wireless. And so, but yeah, I think those like Google and Apple certainly would be like good fits.
[02:29:46] Speaker B: And especially with Gemini.
[02:29:50] Speaker G: Yeah. Yeah.
[02:29:51] Speaker P: Do you think Abel's a buyer at all? Or like, understand he's not a seller. Do you think he's a buyer? Like, do you see any, anything there?
[02:29:56] Speaker C: No, I don't think he's, I don't think the company is interested in buying stuff, right? Like they've got such a huge, they've got this insurmountable wall of opportunity to attack, right? Like they've got the commercial business, they've got military. Could they do some small tuck-ins for key technologies? Yeah, maybe. Like, One that they had to do, for example, is they had to buy thrusters from the old Astra because they couldn't produce those. And so that's what delayed the Block 1 satellites. And so they had to buy, actually they bought a licensing agreement where they could just manufacture them themselves. But I don't really see AST being highly acquisitive of other businesses except for spectrum. And so when they bought Legato Spectrum in January, That was an eye-opener. A lot of people are like, oh, they're not, they're straying from their mission. But I think for Abel and Scott and the management team, they saw an opportunity to secure highly valuable spectrum that gives them a lot of flexibility strategically for the future. And then lo and behold, you know, a few months later, SpaceX buys EchoStar's spectrum. And so that was a good move.
[02:31:07] Speaker J: Yeah.
[02:31:10] Speaker P: No, that's super insightful. I'll hang up and listen now.
[02:31:13] Speaker C: Yeah, thanks for coming up.
[02:31:15] Speaker L: Just want to add a little bit more on that context.
[02:31:19] Speaker C: I think ASTs will not—
[02:31:24] Speaker L: my guess is they will never be open for selling. They would get offers from all the big tech, but I think because of the number of the collaboration partnerships they have built across the world, And the entire huge market share they're going to get with commercial defense, agriculture, robotics, drones, and all national security and 6G. And US government can become a partner itself, but I hope they don't take the US government investments. They can be independent and they actually grow super quick and super fast with great revenues, you know, coming up with this huge Yeah, I agree.
[02:32:10] Speaker C: Let's see, let's try to get more people here. Fool's Gold, how's it going, man?
[02:32:14] Speaker O: Hey, good.
[02:32:15] Speaker D: How are you?
[02:32:16] Speaker M: We're good.
[02:32:17] Speaker O: So very, very exciting day. I'm in Dubai right now, so it's morning. Oh, good morning. Really enjoyed watching the launch.
[02:32:28] Speaker C: Space Mob is global.
[02:32:28] Speaker O: So I'm a total vibes investor, basically like Stock Meetups back in 2021. I was buying just every different SPAC there was. And my name Fool's Gold actually came from my mom saying, be careful that these space stocks you're buying are not Fool's Gold. Um, and so I was a huge investor in Rocket Lab. At one point I had 150,000 shares. And at the beginning of this year, uh, Tim, who's now Alexander, had a post in regards to ASTS and just really got me hooked. Um, and so I split the investment. And I don't know if you remember specifically, MPMM, but I was in Japan for a few months and literally every day there was an Anpanman that I saw and took pictures. And I actually won an Anpanman stuffed doll from a claw machine, which is, if anybody knows, in Japan to win something from a claw machine is like impossible.
[02:33:39] Speaker H: Yeah.
[02:33:39] Speaker O: But the signs were everywhere. And, you know, it's been a crazy kind of journey now that it's a consolidated position in my portfolio. Every, you know, I'm a little overleveraged, so I've been panicking a few times as the stock has gone up and down.
[02:33:58] Speaker E: Right.
[02:33:58] Speaker O: And I have been shaken out a little bit because if people don't know, when you have a consolidated position, at some point as the stock goes down, they re-rate it and then they tell you, oh, we have to, you know, think that maybe it'll fall 90% in a day.
[02:34:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[02:34:12] Speaker O: So then your whole leverage, you know, equation changes. So I've got about 85,000 shares right now, but like super, super excited and just cannot wait for this year and for the future. And thank you for everything, because really you and Kook and everybody in the community has just kept me on point. So thank everybody.
[02:34:33] Speaker C: Yeah, congratulations. Yeah, congrats on making it this far. And I think this is the PSA, when you're using margin, use it sparingly, tactically, and with defined parameters, um, for short periods of time, like if you think you have edge. But for the most part, um, and I'm, I'm not trying to, to, you know, I'm not— I, I guess I'm just trying to say that, um, for, for high beta stocks, like margin is not a good combination. So just be careful, um, because oftentimes when You have just normal volatility or the market moves, you might be right on your stock, but, or the company's fundamentals, but the market moves against you, you get tapped out at the wrong time.
[02:35:19] Speaker L: Right.
[02:35:19] Speaker C: And so, but you know, when it's working for you, it can be great. But yeah, I'm glad to hear that you got a great position. And yeah, this is a tremendous milestone that we've achieved tonight. And I, as we've all said, like I think 2026 is setting up be very, very, very good for the company. But thanks for sharing.
[02:35:38] Speaker O: Yeah, thank you.
[02:35:40] Speaker C: Let's see, ASDSFSD, do you want to—
[02:35:45] Speaker E: Yeah.
[02:35:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[02:35:46] Speaker M: Hey, thanks a lot. Yeah, thanks for everything you guys do for the community. I kind of got into the stock. I'm a newbie and I've been in investing for, you know, know, decades. And I stumbled on this, into the stock not that long ago. I didn't know what I owned, so I was selling covered calls and then—
[02:36:11] Speaker C: Oh boy.
[02:36:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[02:36:13] Speaker M: And then I got caught September, October, and then I was like, what is this stock?
[02:36:19] Speaker C: Right?
[02:36:20] Speaker M: And that's when I was completely oblivious to this community. And that's when I found you guys. And then I started digging deeper and deeper, and now I'm deep into, I mean, it's probably one of my biggest positions now. So I had a question. So we're looking at 45 to 60 sats by end of year, and we're looking at 45 days on average per launch. And even if we have a Falcon 9 with a payload of 3 Block 2s, we're not going to even get close to the lower bound, right? So clearly we're expecting the new plant to come online. Do we have any good insight in terms of when that will come online? Because to even get to 45, we're going to need to have that be the majority of the launches of this year. I don't know if you guys covered this because I joined after the successful launch today, so any insight would be great.
[02:37:32] Speaker C: Yeah, thanks for coming up. Yeah, so we do expect after 2 Falcon 9 launches, at least the way that the company had described the cadence, it was going to be 2 single launches and And then 2 Falcon 9s, and then everything after was going to be New Glenn. However, the company did plan contingencies, and so there are extra Falcon 9s booked for this year. And so if Blue Origin New Glenn can't meet its cadence that they're expecting, I think they've overbooked to something north of 70 satellites in terms of launch.
[02:38:11] Speaker A: Wow.
[02:38:12] Speaker C: And so when you talk to the company and when they've spoken in public, they've talked about overbooking and stacking launches on top of one another. So yeah, I think the expectation is that Blue Origin, New Glenn, and you saw some reference to Abel and Jeff Bezos and of course Adrianis Isideros meeting last year, and everyone jokes about, or this past year, everyone jokes about congratulations for what? I think that's when they inked, they made sure that Blue Origin was going to meet the cadence that they were expecting. And one of the things I think is the management team is in constant contact and they visit Blue Origin quite often. And so they know exactly kind of what's on the horizon. And we actually are speculating, and we'll see if it actually happens, but I think there's a pretty decent chance that BB-7 is going to go up on Blue Origin New Glenn in January because the original payload, which is the Blue Moon lunar lander, I think, I forget exactly, but I don't think that's going to be ready till March. But Blue Origin New Glenn has to have 4 successful launches in order to be, I guess, certified for government work. And so that January launch is happening regardless, right? And so I think there's a pretty good chance that we'll be on that launch.
[02:39:46] Speaker M: Great. Yeah, thanks. Just quickly, do we know roughly what the cost per launch would be for New Glenn? I'm assuming it's got to be in the $100 million range, given that Falcon 9 is roughly $60 to $70 million. So I mean, I think based off of what I've seen on the tweets and here and there.
[02:40:14] Speaker C: I think that's right. I think the upper end, we probably have some discounts, I would say, maybe Amazon Prime discounts. I think it's, depending on where you read, it's anywhere between maybe $80 to $100 million. So on a per-satellite basis, that gets us to where we want to be for $21 to $23 million per satellite, fully baked.
[02:40:43] Speaker N: Awesome.
[02:40:44] Speaker M: Thank you.
[02:40:44] Speaker C: Yeah, thanks for coming.
[02:40:47] Speaker B: I just saw Abel tweeted. Congratulations to the Prime Minister on the successful launch, BlueBoard 6 satellites, and ISRO, the largest ever commercial communication satellite in low Earth orbit. Perfect execution.
[02:41:01] Speaker C: That's really cool.
[02:41:02] Speaker G: Blow it up.
[02:41:03] Speaker B: I responded saying, hey, come chat, and put the link. Yeah, you gotta shoot your shot, you know?
[02:41:12] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, you might come.
[02:41:13] Speaker B: He's probably gonna tweet that and not open his phone. or probably has a million other things to do.
[02:41:20] Speaker E: Yeah.
[02:41:22] Speaker B: Let's see, big launch. He's like, huh, hop into space real quick. Can you imagine?
[02:41:27] Speaker C: That way you could be game.
[02:41:28] Speaker D: In India, the early majority and the late majority and the laggards will all know of AST at the same time. In the US, perhaps the pioneers and the early majority knows about AST. It's an enormous market, India. It's also A lot of investors.
[02:41:45] Speaker C: Welcome back, Katzi. Hey, welcome in.
[02:41:54] Speaker D: Yeah, I had some very fancy audio setup that failed on me and now I'm just on my cell phone.
[02:41:59] Speaker B: I was gonna ask you when, because Anpan was going in kind of the entire journey through the ups and downs and he brought up like how you started pointing out the Like military use case before he even, before like the company even talked about it. What was like kind of the thing that really like drew you to the military aspect and thought that it was possible when everyone else just kind of looked at it as strictly communication?
[02:42:23] Speaker D: Yeah, there were a couple of mentions before the SPAC merger from the company, and then it was a total radio silence for 3 years about the military aspects. But I knew firsthand what connectivity to small radius means for warfare. The situational awareness from sharing in real time where you are, where your friends are, waypoints, where the opponent is. It will give back the advantage and the edge to the US or Western warfighter that was lost with the proliferation of sensors. US warfighters used to be apex predators or have the edge because they had better sensors. These days, their peer opponents have just as good sensors, like thermals and night vision and So you need to get that edge back, and you do that by sharing the sensor data, processing it with the help of AI, redistributing the intelligence, and overlaying that upon the physical world with augmented reality. And you sort of fuse this AI intelligence with the sensor input and You regain that edge. Quick way to make the right decision is what wins wars. So that's what communications aspect does. The AI computation node that's closest to the warfighter in the contested theater will be in low Earth orbit. Because you can't do that inference on the size, weight, and power constraint radius of the soldier. And the latency to go back to, say, USA from a theater far away is just— the latency is too big. So it needs to be in low Earth orbit. And you need to be able to have redundancy in the network. So lower 4-bit connectivity will provide that. And it's simply that it's such a powerful thing. It's a 10-force multiplier to have that sort of real-time connectivity that it will be funded and it will be fielded. And then just, there's many aspects and layers of what you can do with huge phased arrays. There's also this missile defense aspect. Just look at the Aegis missile destroyers or cruisers of the US Navy. They have these huge phased arrays. for radar, for sensing incoming missiles. And so same with aerial warfare, the Wedgetails, or the— Sweden also has these phased array equipped aircraft. What decides aerial combat is who has the best, best radars on board aircraft and also on board drones. There was a conflict between Pakistan and India recently. None of their fighters crossed the borders, but the Indian aircraft, they launched air-to-ground missiles, and the Pakistanis, they used, um, Swedish-made phased array-equipped airborne early warning aircraft. They, they saw the Indian aircraft when they lifted from their bases, and they saw when they fired their missiles, and they downed a few Indian aircraft with such technology. And so that's 4.5-gen air Born warfare or air warfare, and the next logical leap will be to put those arrays in space. That will be 6th generation aerial warfare. We'll need that layer, and then that's obviously golden tool, sort of missile defense and knowing where long-range stealth aircraft are and hypersonics and such, you, you'll need to have, um, space-based radars. So yeah, and I, I could speak another couple of hours on this subject, but, uh, I'll end there.
[02:47:38] Speaker H: Thanks, guys.
[02:47:42] Speaker B: Hey, I mean, if you stayed up all night, why can't we?
[02:47:44] Speaker D: Yeah, this is morning here now.
[02:47:49] Speaker C: Here, let's, let's see. Um, we got Periodic Trader. Do you want to come up and say hello? You have a question? Periodic, you there? Okay, we're going to move on to Lamello.
[02:48:06] Speaker J: Hey, how's it going, guys? So, uh, first of all, I'm actually the, uh, the one who got who spoke earlier. So I was the friend that he was speaking about. And I've obviously followed—
[02:48:23] Speaker C: Because the stock went up, you're still friends.
[02:48:24] Speaker F: Yes.
[02:48:25] Speaker J: So I've followed your guys' Twitters for a while for all new updates and honestly keeping the faith throughout the whole process. And so I feel like for being involved for so long, I've definitely seen a lot of equity raises. And at-the-market offerings. And I just wanted to ask, looking forward in 2026, do you see any scenario where ASTS is forced to do another offering, or do you think they're pretty well fully funded with the $3 billion of cash on hand? Because I feel like Scott and Abel over the past year have done a great job at raising at the right times.
[02:49:07] Speaker C: Yeah, they certainly have. I think at this point I don't really foresee them having to raise money, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do. I mean, they've got, we still have an ATM outstanding that they can continue to tap, but if you add up all the liquidity, it's over $3 billion pro forma. But this company does need capital to build satellites. However, Of course, the balance will be when you've got military contracts and commercial service, like commercial prepayments, for example, and then non-dilutive funding like Import-Export Bank funding. When you have all these things kind of coming together at the same time, you may not have to raise any more money. And of course, when service is launched and revenues are coming in, then at some point, They've talked about, for example, having intermittent service with 25 satellites, which should cover the operating expenses, but that's not going to cover CapEx. But I wouldn't be surprised if they do another raise this coming year because one of the things that, as I talked about before, is that the company has this insurmountable wall of opportunity, right? And so for example, when they raised over $1 billion in October, I remember I talked to management and asked them, well, why'd you guys raise this money? Obviously it was at a good price because they did that convert when stock was at $96 or so. And their response was, well, we didn't really have plans to raise money, but then there was a few opportunities that came up that they wanted to accelerate production, which I think My speculation is that Golden Dome became more of a reality. And so when you have opportunities like that, you have to put forward capital and accelerate production, right? And development. And so it was smart that they raised money and I wouldn't put it past them to do another raise for this coming year. And that would be if they see more opportunity that's accretive and value creative in nature and they want to pull it forward. But that said, they're well positioned as they are right now. And if they do raise something, it would be opportunistic. But yeah, I think I feel really good about where they are more so than any point in time in history because we are on the cusp of commercial service. And just for example, Saudi Telecom, that $175 million is going to hit the balance sheet By the end of this year, which is ending in 8 days, right? And so there's these other sources of funding that are coming together and so I feel pretty good. But if they're, you know, like we've always said, Abel, he's the ultimate owner-operator and if he feels the company needs to raise money, then he also gets diluted along with everyone else. And he understands that trade-off and will make I believe the right decision. Yeah.
[02:52:17] Speaker J: Yeah, that makes sense. And then, and then quickly, one other question, just, I know they're projecting the 45 to 60 satellites by the end of 2026, which will give them coverage over the US, Europe, I think Japan, and maybe a couple other places. Have they given guidance on when they're going to have the full 90, I think is for full capacity of worldwide connectivity? Do you have any more insight just on when that will be?
[02:52:45] Speaker C: They haven't given insight on that, but I think you should just extrapolate, right? Like, so if we're going to get to 60 by the end of this year, then to get to 90, if production is really humming and they've gotten additional space, production space, and, you know, they're at that point, if Blue Origin New Glenn is going up like hotcakes, then I would assume to get to 90, you're probably looking at maybe middle of second quarter of the following year or the end of second quarter. And Scott has talked about this idea of starting to launch mid-band Bluebirds, I think at the end of 2026. And so they're going to start building some of those too. And so it's not just a matter of the low-band constellation, but putting up the second shell. So yeah, I mean, we'll obviously have to see, but before thinking about that, I think we should just focus on getting the $45 to $60 up first, which is clearly what the company's trying to do.
[02:53:49] Speaker E: So yeah.
[02:53:49] Speaker J: Yeah, I would agree. Well, thank you guys so much. I really appreciate everything you guys have done for the stock.
[02:53:54] Speaker C: Yeah, thanks for coming out. Hey, Tanner's here.
[02:54:00] Speaker B: What's up, Tanner?
[02:54:01] Speaker G: Hey, hey guys, how are you doing tonight?
[02:54:04] Speaker B: Good, where are you?
[02:54:06] Speaker G: We, uh, well, I'm in, uh, in California with a couple buddies that, uh, been invested from the, the start, and, uh, we decided— we got approval from our wives— we're going to the casino. But, uh, we're, we're on our way, so we figured, hey, let's, uh, jump in and say, say hi to everyone, you know.
[02:54:27] Speaker C: Are you guys in the car? Hi.
[02:54:29] Speaker G: But, uh, no, I just wanted to say hey to Cat and Anpan. And, you know, we, we were— it's been, what, a 5-year journey at this point or so?
[02:54:38] Speaker F: Yeah.
[02:54:38] Speaker G: Man, it's, uh, you know, we thought it would be, uh, a bit sooner, but, uh, it's, it's nice that it's finally, finally happened. So it, uh, you know, and it— we'll have another one here in a month, and man, it's, it's a good feeling for sure. How are you guys feeling?
[02:54:53] Speaker F: Great.
[02:54:56] Speaker C: Yeah, it's, I will say I, I do an annual guys trip to Vegas, but I had missed it for several years and then I, I finally decided to go back because there was things to celebrate this past May. And so it was fun sharing the story of Mace Tea with, with some of the guys. And, but, but I will say like go, going to Vegas or just going on vacation after being a shoulder and, and coming out the other side, I don't know, it just gives you an extra hop in your step and a new meaning when you take time off.
[02:55:27] Speaker G: Yeah, for sure. No, it's been a, it's been a fun, fun journey with these guys. It's funny, one of the guys, he's actually moving to Midland, so we'll see if we can't—
[02:55:37] Speaker C: Oh, really?
[02:55:38] Speaker G: Can't work an angle there, you know. But—
[02:55:42] Speaker C: Does he want to apply for a janitor job?
[02:55:44] Speaker G: Yeah, yeah, he might, or his, you know, maybe one of his Children at 2 years old will apply for a janitor job or something.
[02:55:52] Speaker C: Actually, I think, I think they need people with small hands to build some of the microns.
[02:55:57] Speaker E: Exactly.
[02:55:58] Speaker C: And they'll hire some, some children, underage employees.
[02:56:01] Speaker E: Yeah.
[02:56:03] Speaker G: No, no, I mean, it's, it's just, uh, I, you know, I, I tweeted it earlier and I think you guys probably feel the same. You know, it was one thing to see this launch tonight and, and successful is great, but like the bigger deal is you know, this is the start of, like you said, the 45 to 60. And, um, there's another one here soon, and it's just, it's, it's, it's cool, and it's, it's great for that, that the whole team, right? AST and, and all of us. Yeah, totally.
[02:56:33] Speaker C: By the way, for everyone who's listening who doesn't, who don't know Tanner, um, everyone should follow Tanner. Tanner is actually a key contributor to the Space Mob. He does a lot of really detailed due diligence. And he's a great guy and he comes from an oil and gas background and he's been able to apply his skills to a tremendous amount of sleuthing work, which has been very valuable.
[02:56:57] Speaker G: Yeah, it's interesting actually from the oil and gas standpoint. So I actually work in a field and we have, I think I've mentioned this before to some folks, but we have 15,000 wells or so and each well costs like 10 grand to hook up to data services. And so, you know, if you can put a simple 5G cell chip versus putting up a mast with RF comms, you know, it saves a lot of money. And then not only that, but there's a field out on the coast of California in Ventura that half the field doesn't have any cell service. And so when I did jobs They had to drive 10, 15, 20 minutes up to the top of a hill to get cell service. And so there's some applicability for, for us to, to utilize here someday in the future, for sure. So, so definitely, definitely feel it in that regard as well. But, um, no, I guess the only other thing I was gonna say is just, it Excited to see everyone again here, here hopefully in a month or two. Last time was fantastic, and tonight it really, really hit home. You know how excited we are to to get that again. Even my wife. Some of you met my wife at the launch, and she she had no idea what she was getting herself into. She you know for for some of you you may know this, others you may not. I I invested all of her retirement accounts into AST. And it went down like 50, 60%. And it was, uh, she didn't know, which was great for me, but, uh, because I never told her and she didn't log in. But, uh, it was a bit nerve-wracking. Um, now it feels great. Now it feels great. But she, when we went to the launch, she had no idea how much we, we had invested. And I didn't tell her up until recently. So it's a, it's been fun. But tonight she watched the launch with me and my buddies and she was excited and ready to go to another one. So that was kind of cool because it's a, let's be honest, it's a bit of a nerdy thing to see. But yeah, it's a fun story for us.
[02:59:10] Speaker C: Yeah, I guess that's a reminder that there will be additional launches in Cape Canaveral. And so, well, I'll definitely be there. I'll see many of you there. And it's okay. Like if you miss one, there's going to be so many more to go to. And I think one of the questions that I had was whether or not the Blue Origin New Glenn launches will be capacity constrained in terms of attendance attendees. And I think that's probably going to be the case because I think on a Falcon 9, it's not as if people from SpaceX want to show up and watch launch, but I'm assuming for the Blue Origin ones, Yeah. There's probably going to be Blue Origin guests there as well. So there may not be as much room for AST SpaceMobile folks. So I think in the coming months when the company has to make decisions of who it can invite, be kind because there's just going to be so many of these things to go to. And I would recommend making a trip out of it. Like if you have kids, go down to Disney World and Universal and And definitely visit the museum down there. But yeah, it's a great time because I think I haven't met a single person in the Space Mob or an investor in AST SpaceMobile who hasn't been a really kind and fun person. And the last time I, the last 2 trips that I've been, I went to, they've just been a ton of fun. So yeah, it's great. But it, let me see, let's bring up Thomas. Are you there?
[03:00:48] Speaker D: Yeah.
[03:00:49] Speaker N: What's up?
[03:00:49] Speaker E: What's up?
[03:00:50] Speaker N: Thanks for, thanks for having me.
[03:00:51] Speaker C: How's it going?
[03:00:53] Speaker N: It's awesome. It's good to, good to chat with you, man. Always appreciating the due diligence, the Twitter Spaces from yourself.
[03:01:00] Speaker C: Wait a second. Are you the guy who took a picture of the bell?
[03:01:03] Speaker N: Yeah.
[03:01:04] Speaker D: Yeah.
[03:01:04] Speaker C: I'm looking through your timeline.
[03:01:07] Speaker O: Legend.
[03:01:07] Speaker N: Dude, that was, I got into this stock. October, early October when they announced the Bluebird 6, um, like being shipped out, right? That's when I went all in at like $53 or something. Um, and then it was very quickly like a spiral down into fuck, I gotta learn more about this company and everything else. And, um, and then eventually I ran into him. It's the craziest thing I've ever done. I went out.
[03:01:32] Speaker C: So wait, you gotta tell us a story. Like how did you run into Abel randomly? It sounds like it was, did you stalk the guy?
[03:01:38] Speaker N: Like, no, no, no. Didn't put a tracker on his car, nothing like that. So I was, I was, I'm like, I live sort of nearby Midland. I was taking a flight to Dallas and I was like, hey, you know what? Let me just stop by Midland. Let me pop by, check it out, make sure it's real, right? So I go there, I drive in like around the building and I'm like, oh cool, it's real. It's, you know, not like a hologram. So I'm coming in.
[03:02:04] Speaker B: First flight.
[03:02:05] Speaker N: There's not much going on there. And then I see a bald guy. I kind of feel like, could it be Scott? Nah, it's not Scott. It's not Scott. So I just like drive off. Then I go to the second side and I actually miss my like turn in to whatever, which road I was going to. So I missed that and I'm like, fuck, I gotta go all the way around. So I circle all the way around. I go back, eventually find it, get to the second side and I'm kind of just hanging out listening to music. I'm just like chatting with a security guard.
[03:02:30] Speaker F: Yeah.
[03:02:31] Speaker N: Um, and I'm about to leave and like right as I'm about to leave, I kind of noticed this truck pull up and I'm like, I only see the guy's side profile, but like, you know, I've, I've seen so many memes of Abel, right? Just on Twitter.
[03:02:44] Speaker E: Right.
[03:02:46] Speaker C: Oh my gosh.
[03:02:47] Speaker N: So I'm like, yeah, I kind of, this could be, is, could this be our guy?
[03:02:51] Speaker C: It could be our guy.
[03:02:51] Speaker N: And I'm like, yeah, I think it could be. And at this point I'm like, dude, I don't want to be a crazy fucking fanatic. Like, Hey, Abel, big fan, you know, love your company, love this, you know.
[03:03:02] Speaker B: Yeah, but you gotta shoot your shot.
[03:03:03] Speaker N: Yeah, exactly.
[03:03:04] Speaker B: I'm like, dude, yeah, it's not gonna go on my space.
[03:03:05] Speaker E: It's never.
[03:03:06] Speaker N: So I'm like, it's now or never. So I, I like step out of the car and I kind of like wave. He like rolls the window down and I'm like, I think the first thing I said was like, hey, can I talk to you for 30 seconds or something? He's like, and he pointed, he's like, he's kind of, he has to go in. And I'm like, okay, well, hey. big fan, love your work. And I said some fangirly shit like that, but he was super sweet.
[03:03:29] Speaker C: We had like a small chat afterwards. Yeah, and then I got out of there.
[03:03:33] Speaker G: Man, if you've ever, and Anpan can speak to this or someone, many people can, if you've ever met him and at launch, the Block.one, super down to earth and relaxed and friendly. I mean, just a real genuine guy.
[03:03:52] Speaker E: Yeah.
[03:03:52] Speaker O: Yeah.
[03:03:53] Speaker N: That's what I picked up from the 15-second interaction I had with him. We shook hands and I let him go inside and I was like, I was smiling ear to ear. I was texting all of my friends and just on cloud nine.
[03:04:05] Speaker F: Anyway.
[03:04:06] Speaker C: Such a cool story.
[03:04:08] Speaker H: Yeah.
[03:04:09] Speaker C: He's, when they talk about aura farming, he's got aura. Like I remember, I met with him at a hotel here in New York in 2023. He was here for some conference and so I was able to speak with him for about an hour. And yeah, he's just a really nice guy, super approachable and like, but determined, motivated, like very nice. But you can tell like the guy's a killer, killer in a sense of, you know, he's all about execution. Like, I'm sure he's a sweet guy to someone like me, but then when you're working with him, he demands like the highest level of excellence, right? And what was cool was I remember asking him questions about funding and execution, and he was just like 100% sure of himself. He was like, oh yeah, it's going to happen. Like, don't worry, funding's not an issue. We're going to have this, we're going to do this. And you can tell like the guy, he's he's the type of person where he's not worried about minutia. He's all about execution, like it's going to happen, right? And so that's the type of person you want in the CEO seat, someone who can lead and instills confidence and believes in what he's doing. And so yeah, that's a really cool story. Cool picture too.
[03:05:31] Speaker F: Thanks.
[03:05:33] Speaker G: Yeah, great picture. I was Surprised that he was wearing, you know, like a store t-shirt from the store. I thought that was interesting to see.
[03:05:46] Speaker C: He's got that Jensen Huang black leather jacket look too.
[03:05:53] Speaker B: I think that's that's super cool and relatable, and I it's it's cool in the picture. Like he he seems super happy to meet him, and I think that just tells you about a CEO. He likes people that are following the mission. But on that note, and I'm probably gonna hop off. I'm gonna stay in the Spaces, but I won't be able to talk, so I'm gonna head to bed, but I will listen in. It was great hosting this launch party with you, and I appreciate it.
[03:06:16] Speaker C: Yeah, no, thanks for setting it up and hooking up YouTube. I know that must have been a real pain.
[03:06:21] Speaker F: Yeah.
[03:06:21] Speaker C: Actually, I think it's probably a good time to end it now 'cause I've gotta get to bed too.
[03:06:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I just looked at the clock and I'm like, we could go all night, but Yeah. Tomorrow's Christmas Eve.
[03:06:33] Speaker C: Yeah, everyone.
[03:06:34] Speaker B: Well, it officially is Christmas Eve in New York and it's a great way to kind of spend it with a, and spend the holidays with a nice Bluebird launch and another on the way.
[03:06:42] Speaker G: Yeah.
[03:06:44] Speaker C: What a great Christmas present. Happy holidays everyone. And thanks for joining. And yeah, we'll see. I mean, I guess the market's open for half day tomorrow, which is nice. But yeah, I just tweeted out that Bloomberg just wrote an article Sweet. Headline. The headline of this article is AST SpaceMobile launches biggest satellite to challenge SpaceX.
[03:07:05] Speaker D: Let's go.
[03:07:05] Speaker N: Man, I love that.
[03:07:06] Speaker B: That's a huge—
[03:07:07] Speaker C: Best impression we could get.
[03:07:09] Speaker B: Yeah, everyone to go share it.
[03:07:13] Speaker C: And I will say there's been quite a few SpaceBob members actually speaking with this journalist, and so we might get an article at some point in the new year just specifically about SpaceBob. So Something else to look forward to.
[03:07:26] Speaker G: Good word.
[03:07:27] Speaker B: As always.
[03:07:28] Speaker C: Yeah, thanks. Thanks everyone for joining and appreciate everyone who came up and shared. And thanks AST Space Mob for hosting and doing a great job. Thanks, Katzi. And yeah, let's see what tomorrow brings and what an exciting day. I'm going to probably— the reason why I wanted to get off too is I want to watch the broadcast Again, before I go to bed. Everyone, thanks for joining, and we'll catch up again soon.
[03:07:57] Speaker B: Let's end the year strong. You guys have a good one. See you, Space Mob.
[03:08:02] Speaker G: See you later.
[03:08:04] Speaker B: Good night.
[03:08:06] Speaker A: Thanks for listening to the AST Space Mobile podcast. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media, or leave rating and review. To catch all the latest news about AST SpaceMobile, make sure to subscribe. Thanks again, and I'll see you next time. We're doing something very, very big. Connecting with this technology, we can really affect a billion lives. AST SpaceMobile is the only company that has proven technology to deliver cellular broadband connectivity directly from We want to bring space to the everyday smartphone. People will just basically turn on their phone and be seamless regardless of where you are. We don't want the user even to know that it's connected by satellite. Our role is to bring this into reality, always in partnership with the NMO.
[03:09:08] Speaker F: Mmm, waffles.
[03:09:10] Speaker C: Mmm, waffles.