Blue Origin successfully reuses New Glenn rocket for the first time

Blue Origin has successfully reused one of its New Glenn rockets for the first time in history, a major milestone for heavy launch systems as Jeff Bezos’ space company aims to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

However, the overall success of the mission may be questionable. About two hours after liftoff, Blue Origin revealed that the communications satellite that New Glenn carried into space for AST SpaceMobile had fallen into a “sub-nominal orbit.” This means that something may have gone wrong with the rocket’s upper stage. In other words, the company appears to have missed the mark.

“We have confirmed separation of the payload. AST SpaceMobile has confirmed that the satellite has powered up. We are currently evaluating it and will update when we have more information,” the company wrote to X.

According to a timeline provided by Blue Origin before launch, New Glenn’s upper stage was supposed to perform its second burn about an hour after the rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It is unclear whether there was a second fire or other problems before the AST satellite was deployed.

The company accomplished the reuse feat Sunday with New Glenn’s third-ever launch, more than a year after the first flight of a new rocket system that has been in development for more than a decade.

Making New Glenn reusable is of great economic importance. SpaceX’s ability to refly its Falcon 9 rocket booster is one of the main reasons SpaceX has come to dominate the global orbital launch market.

Blue Origin has already sent commercial payloads into space with New Glenn (Sunday was the second such mission), but the company hopes to use the rocket for NASA’s moon mission and to help both it and Amazon build space-based satellite networks. Blue Origin is currently preparing its first robotic lunar lander for launch later this year.

The booster Blue Origin reflew on Sunday was the same one the company used on its second New Glenn mission in November. During that mission, the New Glenn booster helped send two NASA robotic spacecraft into space for a mission to Mars and then return to a drone ship at sea. On Sunday, Blue Origin retrieved the rocket booster a second time with a drone ship about 10 minutes after takeoff.

Any problems with the deployment of AST’s satellites could put Blue Origin’s short-term plans for New Glenn at risk. Blue Origin has a deal with a telecommunications company to send multiple satellites into orbit over the next few years to build its own space-based cellular broadband network.

This story has been updated with new information from Blue Origin.