April 20 (UPI) — The Federal Aviation Administration grounded Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket after it botched the release of a satellite following its successful launch two hours earlier.
The third launch of New Glenn and second landing of its reusable booster stage “Never Tell Me The Odds” on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean was a success in those terms, but the spacecraft delivered AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird 7 satellite to an orbit too low for it to operate properly.
Blue Origin said Monday that it is leading an investigation into one of New Glenn’s engines producing insufficient thrust to reach the mission’s target orbit.
“While we were pleased with the nominal booster recovery, we clearly didn’t deliver the mission our customer wanted, and our team expects,” Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said in a post on X.
The FAA, NASA, the National Transportation Safety Board and the U.S. Space Force also have been monitoring the situation and will require Blue Origin to complete its investigation and report on the engine anomaly, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
“A return to flight is based on the FAA determining that any system, process or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety,” the FAA said in explaining why it grounded the rocket.
The New Glenn-3 rocket launched around 7:30 a.m. EDT on Sunday morning, nailing the flight and landing portion of its mission, and successfully released the BlueBird 7 satellite once it reached orbit.
Because one of the two BE-3U engines that power New Glenn’s upper stage didn’t produce sufficient thrust on its second engine burn, which is meant to boost the spacecraft to its target orbit above Earth, it never got there.
Although the satellite was released and powered on properly, the off-nominal orbit — which was too low for it to be useful — AST said it would be jettisoned.
BlueBird 7 is one of 45 satellites that AST SpaceMobile hopes to get in orbit by the end of 2026 as part of a satellite-based cellular network designed to operate with standard smartphones.
The satellite would have been the companies eighth to reach orbit, and it’s share price Feller by more than 6% on Monday, The BBC reported.
Limp said Blue Origin is analyzing data as it conducts the investigation and is “in steady communication with the team at AST SpaceMobile.”
“We appreciate their partnership, and we’re looking forward to many flights together,” Limp said.
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