Blue Origin cleared to fly New Glenn mega-rocket after April mishap
Jeff Bezos’ rocket company confirmed an engine failure led to the loss of an AST SpaceMobile satellite last month, but offered little detail.
Jeff Bezos’ rocket company confirmed an engine failure led to the loss of an AST SpaceMobile satellite last month, but offered little detail.
The New Glenn rocket will have to stay grounded while the company investigates what caused the apparent failure of its upper stage.
The first major failure of Blue Origin’s new heavy-launch system could create delays to its ambition to help NASA and the Trump administration return to the Moon.
It’s a major milestone for the company’s new mega-rocket system, putting it in position to challenge SpaceX’s dominance of the global launch market.
Next time around, the pressure will be on SpaceX and Blue Origin.
“Project Sunrise” would include more than 50,000 satellites performing high-energy compute on orbit.
The company is trying to take advantage of President Donald Trump’s desire to return astronauts to the lunar surface by the end of his term.
The company is trying to take advantage of President Donald Trump’s desire to return astronauts to the lunar surface by the end of his term.
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin had previously suggested that the third launch of the mega-rocket would take the space company’s robotic lunar lander to the moon.
The network will be designed for enterprise, data center, and government customers and could offer an alternative to SpaceX’s Starlink service.