New Glenn grounded

Blue Origin’s New Glenn is grounded after the Federal Aviation Administration classified its April 19 launch failure as a mishap and ordered an investigation. (faa.gov; space.com) The problem came on New Glenn’s third flight, which lifted off from Cape Canaveral on Sunday, April 19, carrying AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird 7 satellite. Blue Origin had billed the mission as the first reuse of the booster “Never Tell Me The Odds.” (blueorigin.com; blueorigin.com) A rocket’s upper stage is the part that finishes the job in space, like the last leg of a relay race after the booster drops away. On NG-3, the first stage landed on Blue Origin’s barge Jacklyn, but the upper stage failed to place BlueBird 7 into its planned low Earth orbit. (blueorigin.com; spaceflightnow.com) BlueBird 7 was built to add capacity to AST SpaceMobile’s direct-to-smartphone broadband network, which the company says is aimed at standard 4G and 5G phones. AST says the satellite launched on April 19 and was its second next-generation BlueBird spacecraft. (ast-science.com; blueorigin.com) The grounding halts New Glenn flights until Blue Origin identifies the root cause and the Federal Aviation Administration accepts corrective actions. The agency says mishap investigations are meant to determine what failed and what changes are needed to prevent a repeat. (faa.gov; space.com) That matters for a rocket Blue Origin is trying to move from test flights into regular customer service. New Glenn first flew in January 2025, and its second mission on Nov. 13, 2025 launched NASA’s twin ESCAPADE spacecraft and landed the booster in the Atlantic. (techcrunch.com; nasa.gov; blueorigin.com) New Glenn’s second stage uses two BE-3U engines, which Blue Origin says are restartable and designed for missions to low Earth orbit, the Moon, and beyond. Blue Origin said in November 2025 that it was increasing total BE-3U thrust from 320,000 pounds-force to 400,000 pounds-force over the next few missions. (blueorigin.com; blueorigin.com; blueorigin.com) Outside reporting has tied the April 19 failure to an upper-stage engine shortfall, but Blue Origin has not published a full technical explanation yet. The company’s public mission page for NG-3 still shows the planned flight profile rather than a postflight anomaly report. (washingtonpost.com; blueorigin.com) AST SpaceMobile has not posted a detailed press release on its investor site about the loss, but its public materials still list BlueBird 7 as launched on April 19. The company has other launch options in its deployment plan, including rockets from SpaceX and India’s Launch Vehicle Mark-3 program, according to prior coverage and Blue Origin’s earlier contract announcement. (ast-science.com; techcrunch.com; blueorigin.com) For now, the split-screen result from April 19 stands: Blue Origin proved it could fly and recover the same heavy booster again, then lost the mission on the stage that had to finish in orbit. The next New Glenn launch now depends on what the investigation finds and what the Federal Aviation Administration signs off on. (blueorigin.com; faa.gov; space.com)