Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket company achieved a successful launch of its New Glenn 3 rocket on Sunday morning, which successfully accomplished its booster landing but delivered its payload to the incorrect location.
The BlueBird7 satellite built by AST SpaceMobile will enter Earth’s atmosphere for destruction after it reached an operational orbit that was too low for its satellite functions.
What happened during Blue Origin New Glenn 3 launch?
The New Glenn rocket number three left the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Sunday, transporting the BlueBird7 satellite developed by AST SpaceMobile towards low Earth orbit. Blue Origin provided regular updates regarding the mission on X, sharing that everything went well during the launch and the return of the booster to the Earth’s surface was successful, as has been a characteristic of many of their rockets.
However, things went awry shortly after two hours into the flight. At 9:40am local time, Blue Origin confirmed on X that the payload was inserted into an off-nominal orbit, meaning it didn’t go where it was supposed to.
This was confirmed by the company AST SpaceMobile in a statement issued at the end of the weekend. The BlueBird7 had managed to separate from the rocket and activate itself, but because of the very low altitude, the satellite’s thruster couldn’t manage to fix the problem. The company explained in a very straightforward manner that the satellite would have to be de-orbited since it would re-enter earth’s atmosphere.
The loss would be recovered through insurance, as AST SpaceMobile disclosed the fact that their insurance covers the lost satellite.
The loss is a setback for a company racing against an aggressive deployment timeline. AST SpaceMobile currently operates seven satellites in low Earth orbit and has publicly targeted a constellation of roughly 45 satellites by the end of 2026.
That network is central to its ambition of building a space-based cellular broadband service, one designed to bring connectivity directly to standard mobile devices without specialised hardware.
One lost satellite won’t derail the programme, but it does apply pressure to a schedule that leaves little margin for error.
This was the third New Glenn launch in the rocket’s history, following two missions in 2024. Unlike New Shepard, Blue Origin’s suborbital rocket that has carried tourists, including Katy Perry and Bezos’ partner Lauren Sánchez, to the edge of space, New Glenn is the company’s heavy-lift orbital vehicle and the one on which its commercial launch ambitions depend.
