The Federal Communications Commission granted Amazon a limited, conditional waiver of its requirement to meet a 50% deployment milestone for the company’s Leo broadband-internet constellation.
With Blue Origin’s New Glenn rockets grounded, NASA said it wants options to launch the company’s lunar lander to support a planned Artemis III demo flight test in Earth orbit next year.
By Robert Wall, Garrett Reim, Joe Anselmo, Irene Klotz, Vivienne Machi
As Blue Origin races to close the gap on SpaceX, a huge explosion on the launchpad has dealt the company a significant setback. Editors discuss how Blue will respond and implications for the broader launch market.
Despite extensive damage from the the explosion of a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket on its launchpad, the company is aiming to return to flight before year-end.
Initial visual inspections indicate a second booster and upper stage in a processing hangar at SLC-36 were unaffected by the Blue Origin New Glenn explosion.
Blue Origin says the FAA has approved its report following the mishap with the New Glenn NG-3 mission that led to the loss of an AST SpaceMobile satellite.
AST SpaceMobile plans satellite launches with Blue Origin and SpaceX, aiming to expand its constellation and integrate AI tools for better performance.
Blue Origin says initial data suggests one of two BE-3U upper-stage engines did not deliver sufficient thrust to dispatch the AST SpaceMobile BlueBird 7 satellite to its intended orbit.
AST SpaceMobile says it will need to deorbit BlueBird 7 after Blue Origin placed the satellite in an “off-nominal” orbit following its launch on a New Glenn rocket.
The U.S. Space Force has picked Blue Origin to advance in discussions to lease Space Launch Complex-14 at Vandenberg SFB, California, for vertical launch operations.
Blue Origin is working toward an April 16 launch of its New Glenn rocket, which will carry AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird 7 satellite into low Earth orbit.
