spacetoday.net: New Glenn fails to place AST SpaceMobile payload in orbit on third launch

Posted: Sat, Apr 25, 2026, 10:50 AM ET (1450 GMT)
A New Glenn launch on Sunday placed an AST SpaceMobile payload into the wrong orbit. The rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 7:25 am EDT (1125 GMT) on the NG-3 mission, carrying the BlueBird 7 satellite. About an hour after the scheduled payload deployment into low Earth orbit, Blue Origin announced the satellite had been deployed into an "off-nominal" orbit following an apparent issue with the rocket's upper stage. AST SpaceMobile said later that day that the orbit was too low for the spacecraft's electric propulsion to recover from and BlueBird 7 will be deorbited. The failure overshadowed the successful landing of the New Glenn booster, which was making its second flight after the NG-2 mission last November. However, Blue Origin had replaced the BE-4 engines in the booster between the two flights. AST SpaceMobile said that, despite the failure, it still expected to have 45 satellites in orbit by the end of the year; it currently has six. Shares in AST SpaceMobile were down about 15% in pre-market trading Monday.