Skip to content
topics.

Blue Origin's New Glenn leaves customer satellite in wrong orbit

techApr 20, 2026989

On its third flight from Cape Canaveral on Sunday, Blue Origin's New Glenn placed an AST SpaceMobile customer satellite into a lower-than-planned orbit. Blue Origin said a performance issue with the rocket's upper stage prevented the planned orbital insertion. Jeff Bezos posted video of the reusable New Glenn booster landing on the droneship Jacklyn in the Atlantic, marking a booster recovery milestone for the vehicle. AST SpaceMobile said it will de-orbit the satellite because the achieved orbit is unusable for operations.

Key Highlights

New Glenn's third flight from Cape Canaveral put AST SpaceMobile satellite into lower orbit.
Blue Origin attributed the failure to an upper stage performance issue.
Jeff Bezos posted video of the reusable booster landing on droneship Jacklyn.
3 sources
cbsnews.comIn its third flight, a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket puts satellite payload into wrong orbittechcrunch.comBlue Origin’s New Glenn put a customer satellite in the wrong orbit during its third launchspiegel.deBlue Origin: Bezos-Rakete »New Glenn« setzt Satellit in falscher Umlaufbahn ab

Related

Palantir manifesto urges tech to prioritize national securitytechJohn Ternus to replace Tim Cook as Apple CEOtechBlue Origin's New Glenn leaves customer satellite in wrong orbittech