What happened during Blue Origin's third New Glenn rocket flight?

During its third flight, Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket successfully landed its first stage booster, but the upper stage failed to deploy its satellite payload into the correct orbit.

How does the New Glenn failure affect NASA's Artemis program?

The failure of the upper stage impacts NASA's Artemis lunar program as a human-rated version of Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander, which relies on reliable New Glenn launches, is intended to ferry astronauts to the Moon.

Are upper stage failures common for heavy-lift rockets?

Upper stage failures have occurred with other rockets recently, including SpaceX's Starship and Falcon 9, indicating ongoing challenges in achieving consistent success with these critical components.

Home / Science / New Glenn Booster Lands, Upper Stage Fails

New Glenn Booster Lands, Upper Stage Fails

20 Apr

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Summary

New Glenn's first stage successfully landed in the Atlantic Ocean.
The rocket's upper stage placed its satellite payload into an incorrect orbit.
This setback impacts NASA's Artemis lunar program and Blue Origin's future launches.

New Glenn Booster Lands, Upper Stage Fails

The third flight of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket saw its first stage successfully land in the Atlantic Ocean, marking a crucial reflight of an orbital-class booster. Despite this achievement, the mission encountered a significant issue when the upper stage failed to place AST SpaceMobile's satellite into the intended orbit.

This orbital inaccuracy represents a setback for Blue Origin and impacts its role in NASA's Artemis lunar program. The failure of the upper stage to achieve the correct trajectory, a deviation from previous successful New Glenn flights, is now under investigation.