Blue Origin lands New Glenn again

Blue Origin landed a New Glenn booster for the second straight mission on April 19, but the same flight left AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird 7 satellite in the wrong orbit. (blueorigin.com) (reuters.com) The rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 7:25 a.m. Eastern on New Glenn’s third flight, known as NG-3. The first stage separated and landed on Blue Origin’s Jacklyn platform in the Atlantic. (blueorigin.com) (youtube.com) Blue Origin said the mission used the same booster that flew NASA’s ESCAPADE launch in November 2025, making NG-3 the company’s first flight with a reused New Glenn first stage. Reuters reported it was the first landing of a reused New Glenn booster. (blueorigin.com) (reuters.com) Rockets split into stages because hauling empty tanks all the way to orbit wastes fuel. New Glenn’s lower stage returned to Earth intact, but the upper stage underperformed on its second burn and could not raise BlueBird 7 to its planned orbit. (blueorigin.com) (aviationweek.com) That left BlueBird 7 too low for its own propulsion system to save the mission. AST SpaceMobile declared the satellite lost on April 19, and Aviation Week reported it was deorbited on April 20. (aviationweek.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) The Federal Aviation Administration then grounded New Glenn while Blue Origin investigates the upper-stage anomaly. That pause came days after Blue Origin had been pitching NG-3 as another step toward routine reuse of its heavy-lift rocket. (aerotime.aero) (blueorigin.com) New Glenn is Blue Origin’s large orbital rocket, built to carry satellites, national security payloads and eventually missions tied to the company’s Blue Moon lunar lander program. Blue Origin says the vehicle uses seven BE-4 engines on the first stage and two restartable BE-3U engines on the upper stage. (blueorigin.com) (usatoday.com) The contrast in NG-3 was blunt: the reusable hardware that comes back worked again, while the expendable hardware that had to finish the trip did not. That split leaves Blue Origin with a proven booster recovery sequence and an unresolved problem in the stage that actually delivers payloads to orbit. (reuters.com) (aviationweek.com) For Blue Origin, the next milestone is not another landing video. It is returning New Glenn to flight after the investigation and showing the upper stage can place a customer’s spacecraft in the right orbit. (aerotime.aero) (blueorigin.com)