Dr. John Barentine FRAS on Nostr: The recently launched initial #satellites in the AST SpaceMobile BlueBird ...

The recently launched initial #satellites in the AST SpaceMobile BlueBird constellation are bright, but less so than the prototype BlueWalker 3 spacecraft launched in 2022. "Based on a large set of visual observations, the mean apparent magnitude of BlueBird satellites is 3.44, while the mean of magnitudes adjusted to a uniform distance of 1000 km is 3.84. Near zenith the spacecraft can be as bright as magnitude 0.5. ... A model for their brightness shows that design changes since the BlueWalker 3 mission can explain the behavior of BlueBird."

https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.05820

#Space