April 20 (UPI) -- The Federal Aviation Administration grounded Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket after it botched the release of a satellite following its successful launch two hours earlier.
The third launch of New Glenn and second landing of its reusable booster stage "Never Tell Me The Odds" on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean was a success in those terms, but the spacecraft delivered AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird 7 satellite to an orbit too low for it to operate properly.
Blue Origin said Monday that it is leading an investigation into one of New Glenn's engines producing insufficient thrust to reach the mission's target orbit.
"While we were pleased with the nominal booster recovery, we clearly didn't deliver the mission our customer wanted, and our team expects," Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said in a post on X.
The FAA, NASA, the National Transportation Safety Board and the U.S. Space Force also have been monitoring the situation and will require Blue Origin to complete its investigation and report on the engine anomaly, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
