Blue Origin has completed its investigation into the anomaly that caused New Glenn to place its payload in a lower orbit than planned. During flight on April 19, the rocket’s second stage malfunctioned before engine burn and one of the engines failed to achieve enough thrust to reach its target orbit.
Blue Origin announced that the Federal Aviation Administration has approved the company’s report on the NG-3 mission and has cleared New Glenn for liftoff. New Glenn was grounded following its failed delivery, jeopardizing the rocket’s busy launch schedule.
third time wasn’t the charm
For its third mission, New Glenn used the same booster that launched NASA’s twin ESCAPADE Mars probe on Nov. 13, 2025. Blue Origin refurbished the booster with the name “Never Tell Me the Odds” for the first re-flight of the New Glenn first stage as a mark of the rocket’s reusability.
Shortly after launch, the booster landed on a landing platform named Jacqueline in the Atlantic Ocean. The successful touchdown marked a major accomplishment for the company, with the rocket’s reusability being a key factor in increasing its launch cadence.
The booster’s victory was overshadowed by the huge flop that followed. The New Glenn AST was carrying SpaceMobile’s Bluebird 7 satellite, part of a constellation of giant satellites designed to provide direct connectivity to smartphones. About an hour after the scheduled payload separation, Blue Origin revealed that the satellite had been placed in an “off-nominal” orbit.
After stage separation, the rocket’s upper stage was expected to burn twice to place the satellite in an orbit about 285 miles (460 kilometers) above Earth. AST Spacemobile later confirmed that when the satellite separated from the rocket and turned on, its altitude was too low to sustain operations with its on-board thruster technology and willpower. [be] De-orbited,” the company wrote in a statement.
cleared for liftoff
The upper stage accident prompted the FAA to ground the rocket, and order Blue Origin to investigate the anomaly.
Blue Origin’s report identified the root cause of the recent malfunction as a cryogenic leak, which froze hydraulic lines, causing a thrust anomaly during the second stage engine burn. The company said corrective measures have been implemented to prevent a similar anomaly during upcoming launches.
Jeff Bezos’ rocket company may have big plans for its New Glenn rocket. A recent job posting revealed that Blue Origin has an ambitious timeline to increase its production rate within the next few years, with 60 new Glenn upper stages being produced by the third quarter of 2028.
The New Glenn has been in development for over a decade, but its launch was hit by several setbacks and delays due to technical problems. Blue Origin is looking to strengthen its rocket’s position in the heavy-lift vehicle market by expanding the production line, but hopes New Glenn can complete its next mission without any further glitches.
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