The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Blue Origin have revealed what went wrong on the third flight of New Glenn and it looks like a cryogenic leak is our culprit.
According to Blue Origin: "Prior to our second GS2 burn, we experienced an off-nominal thermal condition, and, as a result, one of the BE-3U engines didn't achieve full thrust to reach our target orbit."
The FAA's explanation was a little more detailed: "The final mishap report identified the direct cause of the mishap as a cryogenic leak that froze a hydraulic line and led to a thrust anomaly during the second stage engine burn."
The April 19 launch of the NG-3 mission started well. The first stage firing went well, and the booster made a successful landing on Blue Origin's floating landing platform, Jacklyn. However, during the second burn of the second stage (dubbed GS2), things went awry. One of the two BE-3U engines failed to achieve full thrust, leaving the payload, AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird 7 satellite, in a lower-than-planned orbit. AST SpaceMobile later said the spacecraft would be deorbited.
All told, nine corrective actions were identified to prevent a repeat of the problem, and Blue Origin says all have been implemented ahead of the next New Glenn launch. The FAA said it will verify those changes before the rocket flies again.
It is, however, not immediately clear what payload the company will be launching. Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp showed off a video of the next vehicle being lifted onto the Transporter Erector, but gave no further details.
Like SpaceX, which will be launching the next batch of AST SpaceMobile BlueBird satellites, Blue Origin has several targets to hit. It is expected to launch an uncrewed lunar lander this year and deliver NASA's off-again-on-again VIPER mission to the lunar surface in late 2027.
NASA boss Jared Isaacman said in recent weeks that SpaceX and Blue Origin had told the agency both would have vehicles "to meet our needs" for a late 2027 rendezvous, docking, and capability test tied to Artemis III.
Approval from the FAA removes one distraction for the company. However, time is running out for Blue Origin to accomplish its goals before the end of next year.
(Score: 4, Funny) by driverless on Monday June 01, @06:54PM
Could I suggest a quantity of prime marinated Argentinian beef wrapped in aluminium foil?
(Score: 5, Informative) by VLM on Monday June 01, @09:49PM (1 child)
FYI this story and linked article are about NG-3 NOT repeat NOT the somewhat more recently famous and fiery NG-4
This is the completely separate NG-4 story:
https://www.theregister.com/science/2026/05/29/blue-origins-new-glenn-makes-a-crater-sized-dent-in-artemis-plans/5248336 [theregister.com]
I'd flame the author but NG-4 took care of it for us (just kidding... really, just kidding)
Somehow, it actually gets worse, in that NG-1's booster had a rough landing shall we say and is no longer with us.
So out of the first (only?) four launches, NG-2 is the only successful launch...
I guess if your rocket company is stacking up so many failures that people confuse NG-3s failure with NG-4s failure with NG-1s failure...
As you'd expect from a well connected failure, they've naturally just been awarded a $2.4B set of seven classified launches for our Three Letter Agency peeps. You know, in celebration of their success.
The memes on my favorite mongolian basket weaving forum about NG-4 were at least pretty funny as regards the "The Space-X sniper strikes again" etc. Although this story is officially about NG-3's failure.
(Score: 4, Informative) by PiMuNu on Tuesday June 02, @10:49AM
That's a bit harsh. Falcon 9 was only able to land after a few 10s of flights. I would say NG-1 was a success because it made nominal orbit and NG-2 was an outstanding success because it already managed a booster recovery.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_Heavy_launches [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 3, Funny) by VLM on Monday June 01, @09:54PM (1 child)
After recent events with NG-4, they'll need a rather large viagra to get the Erector erect again.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 02, @06:21AM
I have never seen a "large viagra". They all look the same size to me. Where can I get a "large viagra"?
-Thanks in advance!
(Score: 3, Touché) by corey on Tuesday June 02, @09:24PM
Yes. It was Jeff Bezos who personally designed, built, tested and funded this rocket, all by himself! What a magician.
Getting over the media constantly attributing rockets to the C-suite guy at the top, whilst ignoring the thousands of talented engineers who poured blood, sweat and tears into the rocket.