Blue Origin rocket reusable booster lands but satellite misses orbit

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Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in the United States, April 19, 2026. /VCG

The reusable booster of the New Glenn rocket launched from Florida on Sunday by Jeff Bezos' company Blue Origin touched down successfully but the rocket failed to deploy the AST SpaceMobile communications satellite it was carrying into the correct orbit.

The launch was ‌the latest chapter in Blue Origin's intensifying rivalry with Elon Musk's SpaceX. The rocket lifted off at around 7:25 a.m. ET (1125 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, with the booster touchdown coming about 10 minutes later.

New Glenn carried AST's BlueBird 7 satellite to low-Earth orbit. In a statement, AST said that BlueBird 7 was placed into a lower than planned orbit by the upper stage of the launch vehicle.

"While the satellite separated from the launch vehicle and powered on, the altitude is too low to sustain operations with its on-board thruster technology and will (be) de-orbited," AST said.

Designed to connect directly with smartphones, AST's satellite was part of ⁠an effort to build a space-based cellular broadband network, similar to Amazon's Leo or SpaceX's Starlink.

Source(s): Reuters

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