The Blue Origin rocket launch scheduled for this weekend is quite significant. Success would signal the end of SpaceX’s monopoly on reusable orbital launch vehicles, and set up a three-way race to make the “No Service” indicator on your phone disappear forever.

On Sunday morning, Jeff Bezos’ massive New Glenn rocket is set to launch with a first-stage booster that launched and landed on the program’s second mission last November. It’s an important test, because the reuse of cheap boosters is what made SpaceX’s Falcon 9 so dominant.

Amazon desperately needs a reusable rocket to speed up its Leo launches. Without one, it has only been able to launch 241 Leo satellites, putting it well behind schedule. In the same 12-month period, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket managed to deploy more than 1,500 satellites into its Starlink constellation.

Sunday’s mission will put AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird 7 satellite into low Earth orbit. Instead of flooding the region with thousands of small satellites like Amazon and SpaceX, AST plans to deploy fewer satellites that are much more powerful. Bluebird 7 has a massive 2,400 square foot phased array antenna, making it the largest commercial communications array deployed in low Earth orbit. It’s essentially a cell tower in space, and will be the second launch of the company’s “Block 2” next-generation satellites.

Bluebird 7 is designed to deliver 4G and 5G broadband, at speeds in excess of 120 Mbps, to the phones we already own. AST has a plan. Between 45 and 60 satellites will be launched by the end of 2026.. When AST launches its service sometime this year, it will compete with Starlink’s direct-to-cell service, which already works with T-Mobile in the US, and Globalstar, the satellite network Amazon has snapped up that keeps iPhones and Apple Watches communicating in the dead zone.