The Federal Aviation Administration instructed Blue Origin to conduct an investigation into the apparent failure of the upper stage of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday. According to the Orlando Sentinel. This means the company will not be able to fly New Glenn again until it completes the investigation.
This could hamper Blue Origin’s ambitions Launch up to 12 more Glenn’s new missions this year depend on the duration of the investigation.
The problem occurred during the third launch of Blue Origin’s massive New Glenn rocket over the weekend. The launch got off to a good start, with the company bringing back the New Glenn booster for the first time ever and This booster lands back on a drone ship in the ocean.
Developing and proving the reusability of rockets is a big step forward for Blue Origin and could put it on a path to competing with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, the only other spaceflight company that can accomplish this feat, and a dominant player in the launch industry.
But the primary mission was to deliver a communications satellite into space for a paying customer: AST SpaceMobile. While the New Glenn rocket’s second stage successfully separated from the booster, something appears to have gone wrong shortly after. AST SpaceMobile said in a statement Sunday that the rocket put the satellite into a “lower than planned” orbit — so low, in fact, that the company considers the satellite a lost cause and will let it burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.
In a statement Monday, Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said He said The company believes that one of the upper stage engines “did not produce enough thrust to reach our target orbit.”
AST SpaceMobile said it has insurance coverage that will cover the cost of the lost satellite. The company also said it has several new satellites nearly completed and expects them to be ready to go into space within weeks. The company has contracts with other launch service providers as well. AST SpaceMobile’s stock price fell more than 10% on Monday morning before rebounding slightly.
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As for Blue Origin, the upper stage incident doesn’t just represent a risk to potential commercial missions. The company is working on a lunar lander and has big plans to be part of the Trump administration and NASA’s focus on returning humans to the moon’s surface.
Blue Origin is also in The middle of trying to get it New Glenn is certified by the US Space Force to carry out national security missions for the government. The Space Force did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This story has been updated with a statement from Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp.
