The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has grounded Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket following an incident during Sunday’s launch from Cape Canaveral, according to reporting by Orlando Sentinel and others. The rocket looked good on the way up but was ultimately unable to put its payload into the correct orbit.
The FAA is calling the incident a “mishap” and is beginning an investigation to “enhance public safety, determine the root cause of the event and identify corrective actions to avoid it from happening again.” The organization said in a statement that a “return to flight is based on the FAA determining that any system, process or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety.”
The company hasn’t provided any information as to what happened with New Glenn that made it mess up the positioning. It was supposed to position a satellite into a 285 mile orbit after completing two burns, but telemetry data shows that the satellite only reached a 95 mile orbit, which is not sustainable.
This was New Glenn’s third mission, and not the first time the rocket has been grounded by the FAA. Blue Origin was unable to land it after the debut launch and it wasn’t allowed to fly again for nearly three months. The agency hasn’t announced when the rocket will be cleared to fly this time, so we don’t know if it will put a crimp in Blue Origin’s plans to launch a bunch of Amazon Leo broadband satellites. That mission is currently scheduled for later this year and will use the New Glenn rocket.
The FAA has grounded several rockets due to mishaps in recent years, including the smaller Blue Origin New Shepard. It has also grounded SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Starship.
