Blue Origin has finished its investigation into the failure on the third flight of its New Glenn rocket, and the Federal Aviation Administration has approved the company’s report on the April 19 launch. The agency said it has closed the probe and will allow New Glenn launches to resume.
The decision clears the way for Blue Origin to press ahead with NG-4, the next New Glenn mission the company says it is preparing for. Blue Origin did not disclose a launch date or say which customer will fly on that mission.
The failure came during the NG-3 mission, when the second stage, GS2, ran into trouble during its second burn. That burn was supposed to place the rocket’s payload into the correct orbit, but the BlueBird 7 satellite for AST SpaceMobile ended up stranded in an orbit too low for recovery.
Blue Origin said that before the second GS2 burn it experienced an off-nominal thermal condition and that one of the BE-3U engines did not achieve full thrust to reach the target orbit. The FAA said the direct cause was a cryogenic leak that froze a hydraulic line and led to a thrust anomaly during the second-stage engine burn.
The agency said Blue Origin identified nine corrective actions to prevent a repeat of the problem, and that it will verify the changes are in place before the next New Glenn mission lifts off. Blue Origin has not said when NG-4 will fly, but it has made clear it is moving toward the next launch. On May 11, AST SpaceMobile chief strategy officer Scott Wisniewski said on an earnings call that an upper-stage anomaly like this is not uncommon early in a program, and that he felt optimistic about New Glenn returning to the pad soon.
Blue Origin also posted a video from company executive Dave Limp showing a new vehicle being installed on a transporter-erector, with the caption, “Next stop integrated hotfire.” For Blue Origin, the FAA’s approval means the company can try again after an early setback on a rocket that has only now reached its third flight. For AST SpaceMobile, the loss of BlueBird 7 is already part of a broader launch plan, with three more BlueBird satellites recently shipped to Florida for a SpaceX Falcon 9 mission in June. The next question is not whether New Glenn can fly again; the FAA has answered that. It is whether Blue Origin can show the fix works on the pad, and do it without another loss in orbit.
