Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket failed in mid-April to put an AST SpaceMobile satellite into the correct Earth orbit, even though the launch itself appeared to go well and its booster landed safely on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean. The Federal Aviation Administration said the rocket will remain grounded until an investigation into the failure is finished.
The mission’s problem came after Blue Origin’s craft was unable to reach the needed elevation because its engines did not produce enough thrust to reach the target orbit, according to the company. The satellite is now expected to be nonoperational. Blue Origin chief executive Dave Limp said the engines “didn't produce sufficient thrust to reach our target orbit.”
The failure matters far beyond one satellite. New Glenn is slated to play a vital role in NASA’s Artemis 3 moon mission, and Artemis has already been slowed by years of delays. The original plan was to return people to the moon in 2024, but that date was pushed back to 2028, leaving far less room for another major setback.
Todd Harrison said the investigation could stretch out for months. “It could take them three, four months, or longer,” he said. “If it goes longer than that, then that's disappointing, and that starts to impact the Artemis program.”
Blue Origin is not the only company tied to Artemis, and that is part of the pressure now building around the program. SpaceX also has a role to play, even as its Starship has exploded multiple times during attempted launches. Every delay or failure in one part of the lunar plan makes the schedule harder to defend in another.
For Blue Origin, the immediate question is not whether the rocket can fly again, but how long it will sit on the ground while regulators and engineers sort out what went wrong. For Artemis, the answer could decide how much more slippage the moon program can absorb before 2028 stops looking like a target and starts looking like a warning.