Blue Origin New Glenn Gets Launch Clearance Following Payload Mishap in NG-3 Mission

It has been over a month since Blue Origin's last mission, but the company has now received launch clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for its next scheduled mission.

The last mission of the company, the NG-3, saw mixed results in its attempt to try out the reusable rocket's capabilities, with the first-stage booster rocket successfully landing on its drone ship.

New Glenn Gets Launch Clearance for Next Flight

According to a report by Gizmodo, Blue Origin recently received the launch clearance for its next flight and mission with the New Glenn reusable rocket, as confirmed by the FAA. This follows the recent conclusion of their investigation into the last mission, the NG-3, which faced failures and suffered losses on the latter part of its mission, particularly during payload delivery.

Jeff Bezos' space company was able to discover the anomalies and problems present on its New Glenn rocket, and they recently expounded on it via a recent post on their official X account.

Here, Blue Origin said that the New Glenn's second stage rocket experienced an off-nominal thermal condition, which led to one of the BE-3U engines not achieving full thrust.

Because of this incident, the second-stage rocket failed to reach its target orbit and was unable to successfully deploy the payload, AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird 7 satellite.

In the Wake of Blue Origin's NG-3 Mission

Looking back at Blue Origin's NG-3 mission, it was not entirely a disaster as the company was able to see successes during the first half of its mission, particularly as the first-stage rocket, which is its booster, completed its task.

The reused booster from the NG-2 mission was refurbished by the company for this mission and was subsequently named "Never Tell Me the Odds."

The booster was able to propel the second-stage rocket to its stage separation before cutting off its main engine to get ready for its drop. However, the company performed more than a drop as they were successful with their attempt to land it on their drone ship called "Jacklyn," which was waiting by the Atlantic Ocean.

Here, the company demonstrated that its New Glenn is capable of partial reusability since they were only able to land the booster.

Rival SpaceX, on the other hand, has touted full reusability for both the Starship's booster and the second stage, which it has landed before.

However, lately, the company has been struggling to keep both stages intact, even for a water landing.