Overview
- A second-stage thrust anomaly during the April 19 launch left AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird 7 in a too-low orbit and the company says the satellite will be de-orbited.
- Blue Origin traced the failure to a cryogenic leak that froze a hydraulic line and the FAA reviewed and approved the company’s investigation report before lifting the grounding order.
- The FAA’s clearance does not include a new launch date and Blue Origin says it has implemented fixes it believes will stop the thermal and hydraulic problem from recurring.
- The NG-3 flight did reuse a refurbished first-stage booster named 'Never Tell Me The Odds,' which successfully landed on the Jacklyn ocean platform and showed progress on booster recovery.
- Blue Origin also announced a $600 million, 830,000-square-foot upper-stage factory at Cape Canaveral and production targets through 2028 as it seeks to scale for commercial and NASA payloads, a move that raises pressure to prove New Glenn’s reliability.