Blue Origin’s new giant rocket, New Glenn, has no longer been launched. The company announced Friday that the Federal Aviation Administration has cleared the rocket to fly again after its upper stage failed to deliver a commercial payload during an April launch.
Blue Origin did not provide many details, but in a post to As a result, the AST SpaceMobile satellite that Blue Origin was supposed to send into orbit burned up in Earth’s atmosphere. (AST SpaceMobile said it has insurance to cover the cost of the lost satellites.) Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight company filed a report with the FAA and took “corrective action,” but did not elaborate on what those steps would be.
The accident occurred on New Glenn’s third flight, but the flight was otherwise uneventful. The company reused its New Glenn booster stage for the first time ever and successfully landed a drone ship at sea for the second time.
This approval will allow Blue Origin to return to an active schedule at New Glenn this year. The company has said it plans to launch the rocket up to 12 times by the end of 2026, but it’s unclear how much the month-long outage affected that ambition.
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