{"id":281979,"date":"2026-05-23T12:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T12:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/281979\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T12:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T12:44:11","slug":"faa-closes-blue-origin-investigation-that-had-grounded-new-glenn-orlando-sentinel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/281979\/","title":{"rendered":"FAA closes Blue Origin investigation that had grounded New Glenn \u2013 Orlando Sentinel"},"content":{"rendered":"

It took just over one month for the Federal Aviation Administration to close the book on an investigation that had grounded Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn rocket.<\/p>\n

The company announced Friday on X that the FAA had approved its report about what went wrong with an April 19 launch when the rocket\u2019s upper stage had an engine issue, which ultimately lost its customer\u2019s payload.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrior to our second (upper stage) burn, we experienced an off-nominal thermal condition, and, as a result, one of the BE-3U engines didn\u2019t achieve full thrust to reach our target orbit,\u201d the company stated.<\/p>\n

Blue Origin said \u201ccorrective measures have been implemented,\u201d meaning it can get back to the business of launching rockets from the Space Coast.<\/p>\n

The NG-3 mission<\/a>, which lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station\u2019s Launch Complex 36, was only the third New Glenn launch ever following two missions in 2025.<\/p>\n

The FAA labeled the mission a \u201cmishap\u201d<\/a> and grounded New Glenn for what was feared by some to be a monthslong process.<\/p>\n

With a quick resolution, though, NASA for one can breathe a sigh of relief. The agency is counting on Jeff Bezos\u2019 company to potentially be part of next year\u2019s Artemis III mission.<\/p>\n

Artemis III looks to send a crewed Orion spacecraft on a mission to low-Earth orbit, during which Orion would dock with one or both of pathfinder versions of lunar landers being developed by Blue Origin and SpaceX. That mission is planned for no earlier than mid-2027.<\/p>\n

NASA will then choose either Blue Origin\u2019s Blue Moon Mark 2 lander or SpaceX\u2019s Starship for the Artemis IV mission, which aims to return humans to the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972.<\/p>\n

The NG-3 mission wasn\u2019t a complete failure, either, despite the loss of the customer\u2019s payload. It marked the first reflight of a previously flown first-stage booster. That booster, dubbed \u201cNever Tell Me The Odds,\u201d was able to stick its second landing after launch on the company\u2019s recovery ship in the Atlantic and make its way back to Port Canaveral.<\/p>\n

The booster on New Glenn\u2019s debut launch was destroyed when it missed the recovery vessel, but a third first-stage booster, dubbed \u201cYes, It\u2019s Necessary\u201d has since been manufactured at the company\u2019s massive rocket factory in Merritt Island.<\/p>\n

That booster was transported to LC-36 recently as it prepares for an integrated hot-fire test.<\/p>\n

It could be the booster used on the NG-4 mission, which could be the moonbound flight for the Blue Moon MK 1 lunar lander<\/a>, an uncrewed vehicle that is a smaller version of the MK 2 to be used on future human missions to the moon.<\/p>\n

Before the mishap investigation, Blue Origin had been touting a potential launch attempt before the end of summer.<\/p>\n

Blue Origin has other missions it could potentially fly on NG-4, though, including its first launch for the Amazon Leo constellation.<\/p>\n

Just what and when will fly, though, remains uncertain.<\/p>\n

\u201cNG-4 preparations continue \u2014 updates coming soon,\u201d the company stated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It took just over one month for the Federal Aviation Administration to close the book on an investigation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[13372,558,114,115,139,141,140,554,109,76686,1769],"class_list":["post-281979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-blue-origin","tag-business","tag-latest-headlines","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-science","tag-social","tag-social-business","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}