Blue Origin’s new mega-rocket, New Glenn, is not grounded. The corporate mentioned Friday that the Federal Aviation Administration has cleared the rocket to fly once more after the higher stage didn’t ship a industrial payload throughout an April launch.
Blue Origin didn’t supply a lot element, however mentioned in a publish on X that the New Glenn higher stage “skilled an off-nominal thermal situation” that induced one of many three rocket engines to provide lower-than-expected thrust. In consequence, the AST SpaceMobile satellite tv for pc that Blue Origin was supposed to place into orbit as a substitute burned up in Earth’s environment as a substitute. (AST SpaceMobile mentioned it had insurance coverage protection that lined the price of the misplaced satellite tv for pc.) Jeff Bezos’s spaceflight firm submitted a report back to the FAA and took “corrective measures,” however didn’t element what these measures had been.
The mishap got here on what was New Glenn’s third-ever flight, which in any other case went off with no downside. The corporate efficiently re-used the New Glenn booster stage for the primary time ever and landed it for a second time on a drone ship within the ocean.
The clearance means Blue Origin can now get again to its aggressive schedule for New Glenn this yr. The corporate has mentioned it plans to launch the rocket as many as 12 occasions by the top of 2026, although it’s unclear how a lot of an impact the one-month grounding has had on these ambitions.
