In another humiliating blow to Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, the Federal Aviation Administration has grounded Blue Origin’s massive New Glenn rocket following a spectacular mishap during its third flight.
The rocket successfully launched from Cape Canaveral on Sunday, April 19, and the booster even stuck the landing like a pro, but the upper stage completely botched the most critical part: putting a multi-million-dollar commercial satellite into the correct orbit.
The satellite is now a total loss, with its onboard thrusters unable to save it. It will deorbit and burn up in a fiery reentry.
Fox 35 reported:
The New Glenn rocket lifted off on Sunday without major issues, and its first-stage booster successfully landed on a drone ship, marking a technical achievement for Blue Origin. However, the payload — a communications satellite built by AST SpaceMobile — was placed into the wrong orbit, making it unusable.
The satellite, known as BlueBird 7, was intended to support direct-to-cellphone broadband service. Instead, it was deployed into a much lower orbit than planned, leaving it without enough propulsion to reach operational altitude. The satellite is expected to reenter Earth’s atmosphere and be destroyed.
The lost payload represents a financial setback worth hundreds of millions of dollars and sent the company’s stock (NASDAQ: ASTS) lower on Monday. AST SpaceMobile is competing with firms including SpaceX and Amazon in the satellite communications market.
The FAA wasted no time slapping a “mishap” label on the mission and ordering a full investigation. New Glenn is now grounded indefinitely until Blue Origin and the feds sort out what went wrong with the second-stage engines.
Hellbound and Down 