The FAA has directed Blue Origin to launch a formal investigation into a suspected malfunction in the upper stage of its New Glenn rocket, meaning further launches of the rocket have been suspended until the investigation is completed. According to the "Orlando Sentinel" report, the FAA has characterized the launch as a "mishap" and Blue Origin must find out the cause of the failure and explain to regulators.
This decision is likely to disrupt Blue Origin’s launch plans this year. The company originally announced that New Glenn was expected to conduct up to 12 more missions this year, but the actual pace will depend on the duration of the investigation and the progress of remediation. As of now, Blue Origin has not issued a public statement on the superior level failure, nor has it responded to media requests for comment.
The failure occurred during New Glenn's third launch mission. The initial stage of the launch went smoothly. The company reused New Glenn's first-stage booster for the first time and successfully recovered and landed it on an unmanned barge at sea. This is regarded as an important milestone for Blue Origin in reusable technology.
A breakthrough in the field of rocket reusability is considered by the outside world to be an important step for Blue Origin to compete head-on with Elon Musk's SpaceX. Currently, SpaceX is still the only commercial aerospace company that implements large-scale recycling and reuse on large launch vehicles, and it is also the leader in the global commercial launch market.
However, the primary goal of this mission is to put a communications satellite into a predetermined orbit for paying customer AST SpaceMobile. Although the New Glenn second stage successfully separated from the booster as planned, something seemed to go wrong shortly afterward. AST SpaceMobile issued a statement on Sunday saying that the rocket ultimately sent the satellite into an orbit that was "significantly lower than planned." The orbital altitude was so low that the company determined that the satellite was irretrievable and could only be allowed to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.
AST SpaceMobile said that the company has insured the satellite and its losses will be covered by the insurance. The company also emphasized that a number of new satellites are nearing completion and are expected to be ready for launch again within a few weeks, and that its launch contracts are spread among multiple different rocket operators to reduce the risk of a single supplier. Affected by the accident, the company's stock price fell by more than 10% in early trading on Monday, and then rebounded slightly.
For Blue Origin, this upper stage failure not only affects commercial missions, but also casts a shadow on the company's longer-term deep space plans. Blue Origin is developing a lunar lander and hopes to play a key role in the plan to return humans to the moon led by the Trump administration and NASA, and New Glenn is one of the important launch platforms supporting these deep space projects.
At the same time, Blue Origin is in the critical stage of seeking certification from the U.S. Space Force for New Glenn, with the goal of entering the U.S. national security and military space launch market. The Space Force has yet to publicly respond to the incident and its potential impact on the certification process.