Blue Origin Reflies New Glenn Booster as Upper Stage Misses Target Orbit

Overview

• New Glenn NG-3 lifted off from Cape Canaveral on Sunday and Blue Origin recovered its previously flown first stage on the drone ship Jacklyn.
• The rocket’s upper stage underperformed during a planned second burn and left AST SpaceMobile’s 6,100‑kilogram BlueBird 7 in a lower-than-planned orbit.
• AST SpaceMobile said the altitude is too low for its thrusters to sustain operations and that BlueBird 7 will be de-orbited with the loss covered by insurance.
• The reflown booster showed structural reuse because Blue Origin swapped in seven new BE-4 engines for this flight rather than reusing the prior set.
• The setback comes as Blue Origin courts commercial customers and NASA lunar work, while AST continues building a direct-to-phone network with multiple launch providers.