AST SpaceMobile (ASTS.US) successfully launched the “strongest satellite”, but concerns about excessive valuation caused the stock price to plummet 9%

The Zhitong Finance App learned that AST SpaceMobile (ASTS.US) said on Wednesday that the company has successfully launched the BlueBird 6 satellite, adding that it is “the largest commercial communication array ever deployed in low Earth orbit.”

The company says BlueBird6 is capable of delivering high-speed 4G and 5G signals directly from space to standard, unmodified smartphones and government devices.

The satellite was launched by an LVM-3 carrier rocket from the Sardish Dhawan Space Center on Srihrigoda Island in India. It is three times larger than the six satellites currently in orbit, and ten times its capacity.

“The satellite is designed to support peak data transfer rates of up to 120 Mbps directly from space to standard, unmodified mobile devices, and can support voice, full data and video applications,” said AST SpaceMobile.

The satellite was assembled, integrated, and tested at the company's manufacturing facility in Midland, Texas. The company said it is still expected to launch 45 to 60 satellites by the end of 2026, with an average plan to launch every 2 to 2 months.

Yesterday, AST shares rose more than 7% during trading, but then turned down, and eventually fell nearly 9% to 78.05 US dollars.

Currently, the stock's trading volume has exceeded 26 million shares, exceeding its three-month average trading volume.

Recently, some Wall Street analysts have expressed concerns about the stock being overvalued. Up to now, ASTS shares have risen 336% during the year, while the S&P benchmark index rose 17.5% during the same period.

As early as early December, analyst StoneFox Capital stated: “Despite the possibility of speculative price increases, the stock is too expensive for realistic financial goals given repeated launch delays and uncertainty in execution.”