Blue Origin's New Glenn Rocket Launches But Puts Satellite in Wrong Orbit

The company's third New Glenn mission successfully landed the booster but failed to deliver the AST SpaceMobile satellite to its intended orbit.

Apr. 19, 2026 at 7:21pm

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A highly structured abstract painting in soft, flat colors featuring sweeping geometric arcs, concentric circles, and precise spirals, conveying the complex physics and trajectories involved in a satellite launch without using any text or symbols.An abstract illustration captures the intricate forces at play during a satellite launch, highlighting the technical challenges of precisely delivering payloads to their intended orbits.Cape Canaveral Today

Blue Origin successfully launched its New Glenn rocket and landed its booster stage, but it delivered the AST SpaceMobile BlueBird-7 satellite into an orbit too low to be useful. The satellite powered up properly but was placed into an 'off-nominal orbit' by the rocket's upper stage, according to the companies.

Why it matters

This launch failure is a setback for Blue Origin's efforts to prove the reliability of its New Glenn rocket, which is key to the company's ambitions in the commercial satellite launch market. It also impacts AST SpaceMobile's plans to build out its space-based cellular broadband network.

The details

Blue Origin's New Glenn-3 mission lifted off from Cape Canaveral on Sunday morning and its first stage booster, called 'Never Tell Me The Odds', landed successfully on a drone ship. However, the upper stage placed the AST SpaceMobile BlueBird-7 satellite into an orbit that was too low for the satellite to operate as intended. AST said the satellite powered on but will have to be deorbited due to the altitude issue.

  • The New Glenn-3 mission launched on Sunday, April 19, 2026 at around 7:30 a.m. EDT.
  • The first stage booster landed on the 'Jacklyn' drone ship roughly six minutes after liftoff.

The players

Blue Origin

An American aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company founded by Jeff Bezos.

AST SpaceMobile

A company building a space-based cellular broadband network accessible using normal smartphones.

New Glenn

Blue Origin's heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle, which made its third flight on this mission.

BlueBird-7

The AST SpaceMobile satellite that was launched but placed into an unusable low orbit.

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What they’re saying

“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 de-orbited.”

— AST SpaceMobile

What’s next

AST SpaceMobile said it plans to continue launching satellites roughly every other month for the rest of 2026 using 'multiple launch providers', with a goal of 45 satellites in orbit by the end of the year.

The takeaway

This launch failure highlights the challenges Blue Origin and other private space companies face in reliably delivering payloads to their intended orbits, which is crucial for the success of commercial satellite networks like AST SpaceMobile's. It also underscores the importance of redundancy and diversifying launch providers to mitigate the impact of individual launch mishaps.