The Federal Aviation Administration has instructed Blue Origin to perform an investigation into the apparent failure of the upper stage of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday, according to the Orlando Sentinel. That means the company won’t be able to fly New Glenn again until it completes the probe.
That could put a damper on Blue Origin’s ambitions to launch as many as 12 more New Glenn missions this year, depending on how long the investigation lasts.
The problem occurred during the third launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn mega-rocket over the weekend. The launch got off to a good start, with the company re-using a New Glenn booster for the first time ever and landing that booster again on a drone ship in the ocean.
Developing and proving rocket reusability is a major step forward for Blue Origin and could put it on a path to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, the only other spaceflight company that can accomplish this feat, and the dominant player in the launch industry.
But the primary mission was to deliver a communications satellite to space for a paying customer: AST SpaceMobile. While the New Glenn rocket’s second stage successfully separated from the booster, something apparently went wrong shortly after. AST SpaceMobile said in a statement on Sunday that the rocket placed the satellite in 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 the Earth’s atmosphere.
In a statement Monday, Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said the company believes one of the upper stage’s engines “didn’t produce sufficient 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 multiple new satellites nearly complete that it expects will be ready to go to space in a matter of weeks. The company has contracts with other launch providers, too. AST SpaceMobile’s stock price fell more than 10% Monday morning before slightly recovering.
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As for Blue Origin, the upper stage mishap is not just 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 bringing humans back to the lunar surface.
Blue Origin is also in the middle of trying to get New Glenn certified by the U.S. Space Force to fly 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.