Blue Origin, the space venture founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, has faced a setback with its New Glenn rocket. The company attempted to launch an AST SpaceMobile satellite but encountered issues due to insufficient thrust in one of the engines.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered an investigation into the incident, leading Blue Origin's CEO Dave Limp to admit that they did not meet their customer’s expectations and promised improvements for future launches.
AST SpaceMobile saw its share price drop by more than 6% following the news. The New Glenn rocket, which had only flown twice before this incident, is now grounded pending a thorough investigation. Blue Origin plans to return to flight operations swiftly once the issues are resolved.
This mishap comes amidst increasing competition in the satellite industry, particularly from Starlink, part of SpaceX and owned by Elon Musk, which already has thousands of operating satellites. Blue Origin hopes to catch up with its TerraWave project, aiming to launch thousands more into low Earth orbit for mobile phone connectivity.
