Blue Origin Fails New Glenn Satellite Delivery, Marking Total Payload Loss

Blue Origin’s third New Glenn mission failed on April 19. A second-stage malfunction placed the BlueBird 7 satellite into an unusable orbit.

AST SpaceMobile declared the direct-to-cellphone communications satellite a total loss. The company will deorbit the payload following the delivery failure.

The mission successfully demonstrated Blue Origin’s first reuse of a first-stage booster. The hardware landed safely on an ocean recovery platform.

The failure creates a setback for Blue Origin as it competes with SpaceX for launch contracts. An ongoing investigation into the upper-stage malfunction may delay future missions for NASA.