Blue Origin’s reusable New Glenn rocket lands successfully, but payload delivery fails

Today’s launch of AST SpaceMobile’s satellite aboard Blue Origin’s reusable rocket was a partial success. The New Glenn first stage booster touched back down on a drone ship without incident, its second launch and landing, and officially giving Jeff Bezos a reusable launch vehicle to compete with SpaceX’s Falcon 9.

Unfortunately for Blue Origin and AST SpaceMobile, the overall mission was less successful. The Bluebird 7 cell-tower-in-space was delivered to a lower orbit than expected by the second stage of the launch vehicle, and it will be destroyed. The Orlando Sentinel reports that the FAA announced Sunday night that New Glenn has been grounded, pending an investigation by Blue Origin.

In a statement, AST said:

During the New Glenn 3 mission, BlueBird 7 was placed into a lower than planned orbit by the upper stage of the launch vehicle. While the satellite separated from the launch vehicle and powered on, the altitude is too low to sustain operations with its on-board thruster technology and will de-orbited. The cost of the satellite is expected to be recovered under the company’s insurance policy.

BlueBird 7 would have been AST SpaceMobile’s eighth deployed into low Earth orbit and is one of many planned for its space-based cellular broadband network. The company is currently in production through BlueBird 32, with BlueBird 8 to 10 expected to be ready to ship in approximately 30 days.

Blue Origin’s tweet from Sunday morning says:

NG-3 Update: We have confirmed payload separation. AST SpaceMobile has confirmed the satellite has powered on. The payload was placed into an off-nominal orbit. We are currently assessing and will update when we have more detailed information.

Bezos posted a video of the landing on X without comment.

Update, April 20th: Added additional information from the FAA, AST, and Blue Origin.