Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket grounded after delivering satellite to wrong orbit
The Verge • • business
Key Points:
- The FAA has grounded Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket after its recent launch placed the AST SpaceMobile BlueBird 7 satellite into a lower-than-planned orbit, rendering the satellite non-operational.
- Blue Origin’s reusable booster landed successfully, but the rocket’s upper stage shut off its engines prematurely and entered a "coast phase," leading to the off-nominal orbit.
- AST SpaceMobile confirmed the satellite’s orbit is too low to sustain operations, and the satellite will be de-orbited as a result.
- The FAA acknowledged the mishap during the second-stage flight sequence and is investigating, but neither Blue Origin nor the FAA have provided further details or timelines for resuming launches.
- This grounding follows previous FAA actions, including a year-long suspension of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket in 2022 and past groundings of SpaceX rockets after launch failures.
