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#1 out of 293
technology26m ago
Third New Glenn launch suffers upper stage malfunction
Spacenews.com and 2 more
- Blue Origin's NG-3 flight ended with an upper-stage malfunction that placed the AST SpaceMobile satellite in an off-nominal, too-low orbit.
- The mission successfully recovered the New Glenn first stage on the Atlantic Ocean barge, marking a partial reuse milestone.
- AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird 7 satellite was insured, with launch insurance covering only a fraction of cost and not fully disclosed.
- Blue Origin had planned repeated New Glenn flights to support AST SpaceMobile and other customers, aiming for higher cadence.
- Nuanced booster reuse: NG-3 featured a refurbished booster with new BE-4 engines, yet only partial engine reuse was achieved.
- AST SpaceMobile indicated the orbit was too low for its propulsion to recover, leading to de-orbit plans.
- CBS News reported the satellite ended up in a lower-than-planned orbit and could not be used operationally.
- Ars Technica noted Blue Origin's upper stage missed its two planned burns, causing the off-nominal orbit.
- The satellite was to deploy after a planned 68-second second burn, then separate and power on before an orbital adjustment.
- Blue Origin plans to continue launching Blue Moon landers and LEO satellites, contingent on investigation results.
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