The space company Blue Origin’s powerful heavy-lift rocket “New Glenn” dropped a satellite into the wrong orbit on its third launch.
April 20, 2026, 3:18 amApril 20, 2026, 3:18 am
The exact background is still unclear for the time being, Blue Origin said. “We are currently investigating this and will provide an update when we have more detailed information,” said Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ company.
“New Glenn” taking off from Cape Canaveral on April 19th.Image: keystone
The “New Glenn” had previously taken off as planned from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida – and for the first time with a previously used rocket stage. After launch, this rocket stage landed again on a platform in the Atlantic. However, the satellite called “Blue Bird 7” was then placed in an orbit that was too low, as the manufacturer AST SpaceMobile also confirmed.
The “New Glenn” rocket made it straight into space on its first flight in January 2025. On the second flight around ten months later, the rocket carried two Mars orbiters from the US space agency Nasa into space. In the future, Blue Origin wants to use the “New Glenn” rocket to compete with tech billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which currently dominates commercial space travel. (sda/dpa)