Blue Origin’s new mega-rocket, the New Glenn, has already landed. The company said Friday that the Federal Aviation Administration has cleared the rocket to fly again after the upper stage failed to deliver a commercial payload during an April launch.
Blue Origin didn’t provide much detail, though said in his post At X, the New Glenn upper stage “encountered a non-nominal thermal condition” that caused one of its three rocket engines to generate lower than expected thrust, he said. As a result, the AST SpaceMobile satellite, which Blue Origin was supposed to put into orbit, burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere instead. (AST SpaceMobile said it had insurance coverage that covered the cost of the lost satellite.) Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight company filed a report with the FAA and took “corrective actions,” but did not detail what those actions were.
The mishap occurred during New Glen’s third flight, which otherwise flew without incident. Company successfully used New Glenn the first time landing on a booster stage and the second time on a drone ship in the ocean.
The clearance means Blue Origin can now return to its aggressive schedule for New Glenn this year. The company said it plans to launch the rocket 12 times by the end of 2026, though it’s unclear how much the month-long grounding affected those ambitions.
