Three commercial Bluebird 8-10 satellites from AST Spacemobile operating in the UHF (430-440 MHz) amateur radio band have been just launched by SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at about 06:39 UTC. 
Who will be the first to catch and report their signals? 
Possible Frequencies in the table below:
Launch video is here:
439.500 MHz ?
launch time:
2026-06-17T02:39 ET = 2026-06-17T06:39 UTC
inclination = 51.59
target altitude 536 km
Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) — Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
Latitude: 28.561857° N
Longitude: 80.577366° W
bluebird 08 deploy:
00:53:44
bluebird 09 deploy:
00:59:47
bluebird 10 deploy:
01:05:07
faketle -q 535 -Q 537 -I 51.59 -t 2026-06-17T06:39:00 -n 260.5 -m 37.5 -d 300 -i 98001U > fake-spacexblue810.txt
satorbit -c fake-spacexblue810.txt -q -t 2026-06-17T06:44:00 -B 28.561857 -L -80.577366
BlueBird-8
1 98001U 26168.28055556 .00000000 00000-0 50000-4 0 09
2 98001 51.5900 260.5000 0001446 0.0000 37.5000 15.10066935 09
73!
fake-spacexblue810.txt (151 Bytes)
cc: @fredy
That’s what it looks like to me - yes.
Thanks a million for the calculated TLE for the latest BlueBird deployment.
While Bob (N6RFM) got MUCH stronger signals (as usual) and numerous 2k4 Light-1 decodes:
… I actually managed to squeak out one decode w/ my much weaker RX
For reference, since there are no AX.25 addresses in this framing nor any ASCII to ID the source, here is a decode of BlueBird-5 from 2024:
… different frame size, but they start the same.
These new decodes are from the 1327utc pass over the North-Eastern U.S. (but were captured several minutes before the calculated TLE - but it was very much close enough!)
Didn’t say the FCC Grant “outside USA only” ?
update:
BlueBird-8
1 98001U 26168.66982889 .00000000 00000-0 50000-4 0 09
2 98001 51.5900 261.1108 0001446 0.0000 2.5104 15.10066935 02
# 20260617.67-20260617.67, 44 measurements, 0.096 kHz rms
BlueBird-8_168_v1.txt (209 Bytes)
out.dat (1.9 KB)
The one received on a previous pass, as I mentioned at the time, was a few minutes ahead of that well-calculated TLE estimate.
Must have been Object-B:
If anyone previously added the new ‘A/B/C’ objects to their tracking software, please be sure to update to the latest TLE.
It seems that there have been major changes made and now all 3 objects are showing within a few seconds of each other.
now quiet. no signal trace over 
based on current TLE from spacetrack:
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 69589U 26139A 26168.86759766 .00000613 00000-0 51823-4 0 9998
2 69589 52.9984 259.4732 0003688 322.0387 38.0343 15.12492987 96
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 69590U 26139B 26168.93360785 .00000615 00000-0 51729-4 0 9994
2 69590 52.9957 259.1737 0003705 335.3231 24.7582 15.12664370 99
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 69591U 26139C 26168.66930140 .00001603 00000-0 10726-3 0 9992
2 69591 52.9976 260.3752 0003918 341.5126 18.5722 15.12770881 58
TX on 435.900 - 69591
TX on 434.100 - 69590
TX on 434.100
TX on 439.500 - 69589
And… monitored all -5- 70cm freqs on a 51° pass over the Eastern U.S. with nothing seen. So, I guess they have moved to the microwave freqs unless something happens that requires them to drop back down to UHF for some basic low-speed comms.
06:47-06:58 UTC - BlueBird-? was active on 434.100 MHz. No signal on 435.900 MHz or 439.500 MHz. Both Light-1 and BlueWalker-3 SoundModems can demodulate the signal at 2400 bd.
can you decode audio from this observations:
do you record it? i try decode using gr_satellites with this yml file not decoded:
name: Bluebird 08
norad: 98303
data:
&tlm Telemetry:
unknown
transmitters:
2k4 FSK downlink:
frequency: 439.500e+6
modulation: FSK
baudrate: 2400
deviation: 600
framing: Light-1
data:
- *tlm