The FAA Cleared Blue Origin’s New Glenn Rocket for Launch on Friday (May 22)
Blue Origin completed an investigation into the anomaly that caused New Glenn to place its payload in a lower orbit than planned during its April 19 NG-3 mission.
(Kent, Washington) Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin announced late on Friday, May 22nd via X that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved its NG-3 report and cleared New Glenn for launch.
Image of the launch of Blue Origin’s April 19th NG-3 mission courtesy of Blue Origin.
“NG-4 preparations continue—updates coming soon,” reads the post.
On April 19, Blue Origin successfully reused its first-stage New Glenn booster for the first time for New Glenn’s third mission (NG-3), but the mission fell short after AST SpaceMobile’s (NASDAQ: ASTS) was placed in an “off-nominal orbit,” at an altitude too low to sustain operations.
The FAA grounded New Glenn after the incident and subsequently opened an investigation.
“An upper-stage anomaly like this is not uncommon early in programs, and we feel optimistic about them getting back to the pad soon,” Scott Wisniewski, AST’s chief strategy officer, said in a May 11 earnings call, according to SpaceNews. Wisniewski said the next New Glenn launch for AST will carry four BlueBird satellites but did not disclose a timeframe for that mission.
In May 22 statement to SpaceNews, the FAA confirmed that it had closed the investigation, led by Blue Origin, into the launch failure and would begin allowing launches of the vehicle to resume.
“The final mishap report identified the direct cause of the mishap as a cryogenic leak that froze a hydraulic line and led to a thrust anomaly during the second-stage engine burn,” the agency stated, per SpaceNews.
NG-3 customer AST SpaceMobile recently shipped three BlueBird satellites to Florida for launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 in June.
