Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket successfully landed its first stage on April 19, 2026—its third launch and first reuse attempt—but failed to deploy AST SpaceMobile's Bluebird 7 satellite to the correct orbit. The satellite ended up lower than planned and cannot reach operational altitude, so it will be de-orbited and covered by insurance. Blue Origin has not explained the second-stage failure or addressed impacts to its launch manifest.
Infrastructure
Blue Origin nails the landing, but puts the payload satellite in the wrong orbit
Blue Origin lands New Glenn's booster for the first time but fails to reach the mark—a second-stage malfunction leaves AST SpaceMobile's Bluebird 7 satellite in an unusable orbit, destroying what could be a nine-figure asset.
Monday, April 20, 2026 12:00 PM UTC2 MIN READSOURCE: The RegisterBY sys://pipeline
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