AST SpaceMobile says its BlueBird 7 satellite will be deorbited after Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket placed the spacecraft into an orbit that was too low, marring a mission that saw the launch service provider for the first time fly a recycled first-stage on its flagship launcher.

NG-3 lifted off from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) at 7:45 a.m. EDT April 19. Second stage separation occurred as planned little over 3 min. into the mission, with the fairing separating and the initial second-stage engine burn completing 10 min. later.

Over 69 min. after liftoff, the second stage was supposed to fire a second time for just over 1 min., before satellite deployment roughly 5 min. later. Blue Origin later said payload separation had occurred. The satellite was in an "off-nominal" orbit, though, Blue Origin said. 

"BlueBird 7 was placed into a lower than planned orbit by the upper stage of the launch vehicle," AST SpaceMobile. "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," it added, noting it expects the financial loss to be covered by its insurance.

Blue Origin, as part of the mission, recovered the GS-1 first-stage booster little more than 9 min. after liftoff about 375 mi. off the coast of Florida on the company’s Jacklyn vessel. During its return to the ship, GS-1’s three middle BE-4 engines slowed the vehicle for roughly 20 sec. before the outer two engines shut off, with the final one guiding the vehicle to landing with the stage deploying its six landing legs. The booster, which the company named “Never Tell Me The Odds,” previously flew on the rocket’s second flight and is due to fly again.

The company was planning to quickly ramp up launch activity from CCSFS, flying 8-12 boosters this year, Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said in a pre-launch interview. Launch cadence will at least double next year, with those missions largely sold already, driving the need for a higher flight pace.

“If I could launch every week this year, I think I’d sell all the rockets,” he said.

The impact of the failure to place the AST SpaceMobile spacecraft into the proper orbit was not immediately clear. Several other customers, including Amazon, have New Glenn launches pending. The setback comes at a time customers already have been grumbling about a shortage of launch capacity given their needs.

AST SpaceMobile has several more launches planned in the coming months. It has BlueBirds 8 through 32 in production, it said April 19, and plans to ship the first three of those in about a month. The company added that it still targets to have about 45 satellites in orbit by the end of the year. It was targeting commercial service in the second half of the year.  

Blue Origin is building more first-stage boosters to support a higher pace of missions and plans to reduce the turnaround time on their refurbishment. The next flight, NG-4, is due to use a new booster.

The five months between the second New Glenn flight and the just-completed mission was largely driven by going through the refurbishment process for this booster for the first time; Blue Origin has used refurbished boosters on the smaller New Shepard rocket.

“We wanted to look it over with a fine-tooth comb, because you just don’t know what you don’t know,” Limp said. The company also removed all the engines for inspection, which would not be part of the routine overhaul effort, he noted.

Limp said the booster refurbishment time should come down, probably to around 60 days, as a next step, and the company plans to cut the turnaround time further. “We’re targeting under 30 days,” he said.

The Jeff Bezos-backed company introduced some adjustments to guidance and control for booster reentry. It also is looking to introduce New Glenn enhancements that are starting to roll out with the NG-3 mission. It tested a different thermal protection system for better reuse. The company also is looking to introduce higher performance across the seven BE-4 booster engines and two upper-stage BE-3U engines.

The company also is working on a more powerful version of New Glenn featuring nine BE-4 engines in the first stage and four BE-3Us for the second stage. The so-called New Glenn 9x4 could debut in the second half of next year, Limp says. It also will feature a larger fairing.

To support a higher flight pace, Blue Origin also is looking at more launch infrastructure. The U.S. Space Force this month said it had picked the company to advance in discussions to lease Space Launch Complex-14 at Vandenberg SFB, California, for heavy or super-heavy vertical launch operations.

Separately, Blue Origin on April 18 said its first Blue Moon MK1 lunar cargo lander, called Endurance, is back in Florida for testing of its launch vehicle separation system and communications system. The company also says it plans a wet dress rehearsal of the lander before encapsulating it in preparation for launch on New Glenn. It had targeted the place the lander on the Moon before year end.