Blue Origin New Glenn rocket puts satellite payload into wrong orbit
Blue Origin The company launched its third New Glenn rocket We flew again on Sunday and successfully recovered a previously used first stage. But officials said the rocket’s second stage put the payload, a direct-to-cellphone communications satellite, into an unusable orbit.
AST SpaceMobile of Midland, Texas, creator of the BlueBird 7 satellite, said in a statement that the cellular relay station’s onboard propulsion system could not compensate for the lower altitude than planned.
Spectators on Florida’s Cape Canaveral beach enjoy a spectacular Sunday morning launch, watching the Blue Origin New Glenn rocket carrying the next-generation cellular broadband satellite explode. The company later said that the AST SpaceMobile Bluebird 7 satellite had entered the wrong orbit. / Credit: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflightnow.com
“During the New Glenn 3 mission, BlueBird 7 was placed in a lower orbit than planned by the launch vehicle upper stage,” the company said. “Once the satellite is separated from the launch vehicle and powered up, the altitude will be too low to sustain operations with the onboard thruster technology and it will deorbit.”
The cost of the satellite was not disclosed, but the company said that the satellite was fully insured.
Launched on Sunday, New Glenn was Blue Origin’s third aircraft and the first to use a previously flown stage. The company is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station occurred at 7:25 a.m. ET, 40 minutes after an unexplained pause in the countdown. When the count finally reached zero, the ascending rocket’s seven methane-burning BE-4 engines ignited with an earth-shattering roar and the booster began to climb above its 3.8 million pounds of thrust.
Amazon founder and Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos released a video showing New Glenn’s first stage flying for the second time and landing toward the target on a company landing barge deployed in the lower Atlantic Ocean. / Credit: Blue Origin
The first stage appeared to work flawlessly; It would shut down approximately three minutes and nine seconds after takeoff and crash as planned. The rocket’s second stage, powered by two BE-3 engines, was then fired to continue the climb to initial orbit.
The first stage, meanwhile, departed for a Blue Origin landing barge stationed several hundred miles down in the Atlantic Ocean and flew itself to an on-target landing about nine minutes and 20 seconds after launch.
The same stage achieved the same success on the second flight of New Glenn (NG-2) last November, albeit using a different set of engines.
“With our first retrofit booster, we chose to replace all seven engines and test several upgrades, including a thermal protection system on one of the engine nozzles,” Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said in an earlier social media post. “We plan to use the engines we flew for NG-2 in future flights.”
About two and a half minutes after the first stage touched down Sunday, the second stage engines shut down as planned. A second upper stage engine was expected to fire an hour and 10 minutes after launch, but that time came and went without any updates from Blue Origin.
But about an hour later, the company reported that the satellite had not been released into its intended orbit. The post did not specify whether the second upper stage engine ignition actually occurred or, if so, whether it operated the entire time.
“We have confirmed the payload has been separated,” Blue Origin shared on X. “AST SpaceMobile has confirmed that the satellite has been deployed. The payload has been deployed into a non-nominal orbit. We are currently evaluating and will update when we have more detailed information.”
The BlueBird 7 satellite was equipped with a 2,400 square meter phased array antenna, the largest civilian antenna of its kind deployed in low Earth orbit.
The satellite is the second of a new generation of AST SpaceMobile data relay stations designed to seamlessly provide direct space-based 4G and 5G cellular broadband service to mobile phone users anywhere in the world.
An artist’s rendering of the AST SpaceMobile Bluebird satellites in orbit around Earth, providing cellular broadband connectivity to users around the world. / Credit: AST SpaceMobile
The company plans to deploy up to 60 such “second block” BlueBirds in its initial constellation and launch them on SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets, Indian LVM3 boosters and Blue Origin’s New Glenn.
Despite Sunday’s setback, AST SpaceMobile said it “continues to expect an average orbital launch every one to two months through 2026, supported by agreements with multiple launch providers, and continues to target approximately 45 satellites in orbit by the end of 2026.”
Blue Origin plans to compete head-to-head with SpaceX to deliver commercial, military and science satellites into Earth orbit and deep space, while deploying a fleet of space-based LEO internet satellites owned by Amazon that aim to compete with SpaceX’s already established Starlink system.
Blur Origin is also improving moon landers Delivering NASA cargo and astronauts to the lunar surface.
The New Glenn rocket is critical to all of these initiatives. The company tentatively plans to launch a prototype Blue Moon lander on a pilotless test flight later this summer or early fall, followed by one and possibly two launches. Amazon LEO internet satellites before the end of the year.
But those plans will depend on the results of the investigation into what went wrong on Sunday.
