The FAA grounded New Glenn after it failed to get its payload into orbit.
Blue Origin can now make more concrete plans for New Glenn’s next flight after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) cleared the rocket for launch. If you’ll recall, the FAA grounded New Glenn during its third mission after it failed to properly place its payload into orbit. Now, in a post on X, the aerospace company announced that the agency has approved its report for the flight and accepted the corrective measures it implemented. Talking about the rocket’s next flight, Blue Origin wrote, “Preparations for NG-4 continue – updates coming soon.”
In April, the company successfully reused its first stage New Glenn booster for the first time for New Glenn’s third mission (NG-3). Everything seemed to be going well, until it came time to deploy the AST Spacemobile satellite into orbit, which the vehicle was carrying. Blue Origin announced at the time that the vehicle had placed the satellite “out of nominal orbit”. The AST Spacemobile later revealed that its satellite had separated from the vehicle, but that its “altitude [was] It is too low to maintain operations with its on-board thruster technology and will be de-orbited.”
The FAA grounded New Glenn after the incident, which it called an “accident”, and launched an investigation to “determine the root cause of the incident and identify corrective actions.” Shortly after the incident, Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said that early data showed that upon the second burn of the rocket’s upper stage, one of its BE-3U engines did not generate enough thrust to reach its target orbit. The company’s new post on X echoes their announcement. “Prior to our second GS2 burn, we experienced an off-nominal thermal condition, and as a result, one of the BE-3U engines did not achieve full thrust to reach our target orbit,” Blue Origin wrote.
In a statement sent to space newsThe FAA revealed that the final report had identified the direct cause of the accident as “a cryogenic leak that froze the hydraulic line and caused a thrust anomaly during the second stage engine burn.” Since identifying the problem, Blue Origin has taken nine corrective actions to prevent the incident from occurring again. The company has not yet announced a timeline for NG-4, but Limp recently posted a video of New Glenn’s transporter erector and revealed that Blue Origin is likely preparing for integrated hotfire testing for the upcoming mission.
Funny video of “No, it is necessary” lifting on the transporter erector. The next stop is the integrated Hotfire. “Never Tell Me the Odds” is also in the house (in its renewal cycle). pic.twitter.com/HnQO31inoq
– Dave Limp (@Devil) 22 May 2026
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