Jeff Bezos’ house firm Blue Origin efficiently re-used one in every of its New Glenn rockets for the first time ever on Sunday, however the firm failed at its major mission: delivering a communications satellite tv for pc to orbit for buyer AST SpaceMobile.
AST SpaceMobile issued a press release Sunday afternoon that the higher stage of the New Glenn rocket positioned BlueBird 7 satellite tv for pc into an orbit that was “decrease than deliberate.” The satellite tv for pc efficiently separated from the rocket and powered on, the corporate stated, however the altitude is simply too low “to maintain operations” and can now need to be de-orbited — left to deplete within the ambiance of Earth.
The price of the lack of the satellite tv for pc is roofed by AST SpaceMobile’s insurance coverage coverage, in accordance the corporate, and there are successive BlueBird satellites that will probably be accomplished in round a month. AST SpaceMobile has contracts with extra than simply Blue Origin, and the corporate stated it expects to have the ability to launch 45 extra to house by the top of 2026.
However this represents the primary main failure for Blue Origin’s New Glenn program, which solely made its first flight in January 2025 after greater than a decade in growth. This was the second mission the place New Glenn carried a buyer payload to house, after launching twin spacecraft certain for Mars on behalf of NASA final November. The corporate didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The obvious failure of New Glenn’s second stage may have wider implications past Blue Origin’s near-term industrial ambitions. The corporate is pushing exhausting to change into one of many predominant launch suppliers for NASA’s Artemis missions to the moon and past. The house company — and the Trump administration — has put stress on Blue Origin and SpaceX to have the ability to put landers on the moon by the top of President Donald Trump’s second time period, earlier than advancing to returning people to the lunar floor.
Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp has even said his firm “will transfer heaven and Earth” to assist NASA get again to the moon sooner.
Blue Origin not too long ago accomplished testing its first model of its personal lunar lander, which the corporate is anticipated to attempt to launch sooner or later this 12 months (with none crew). Blue Origin had recommended final 12 months that it was contemplating launching this lander on New Glenn’s third mission, however finally decided to launch the AST SpaceMobile satellite instead.
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The third New Glenn launch appeared to begin simply wonderful on Sunday, with the the mega-rocket lifting off at 7:35 a.m. native time from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was the primary time Blue Origin re-used a previously-flown New Glenn booster — the identical one which flew throughout New Glenn’s second mission. Roughly 10 minutes after liftoff, the booster got here again down and landed on a drone ship within the ocean, similar to it had final November. Jeff Bezos even shared drone footage of the booster’s touchdown on X, the social media website owned by his rival Elon Musk. (Musk supplied congratulations.)
Roughly two hours after the launch, although, Blue Origin introduced in its personal post that the New Glenn higher stage positioned AST SpaceMobile satellite tv for pc in an “off-nominal orbit.” The corporate has not launched any extra data since that publish.
Blue Origin spent a very long time growing New Glenn, and it has been taken as an indication of confidence in that course of that the corporate determined to begin launching industrial payloads throughout these early missions. By comparability, SpaceX has spent the previous few years flying check variations of its large Starship, however has caught with utilizing dummy payloads as it really works out the rocket’s kinks.
SpaceX did lose payloads deeper into its Falcon 9 program. In 2015, on the nineteenth Falcon 9 mission, the rocket blew up mid-flight and misplaced a complete Worldwide Area Station cargo spacecraft. In 2016, a Falcon 9 exploded on the launch pad throughout testing, inflicting the lack of an web satellite tv for pc for Meta.
