Blue Origin has successfully reused one of its Novel Glenn rockets for the first time ever, marking a major milestone for the heavy-launch system as Jeff Bezos’ space firm looks to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

But the overall mission’s success may be in question. Roughly two hours after the launch, Blue Origin revealed that the communications satellite that Novel Glenn carried to space for AST SpaceMobile wound up in an “off-nominal orbit,” meaning something may have gone wrong with the rocket’s upper stage. In other words, it appears the enterprise missed the mark.

“We have confirmed payload separation. AST SpaceMobile has confirmed the satellite has powered on,” the business wrote on X. “We are currently assessing and will update when we have more detailed information.”

AST later remarked Blue Origin’s rocket placed its satellite into an orbit that was “lower than planned,” so the satellite will have to be de-orbited.

the upper stage of Latest Glenn should have performed a second burn roughly one hour after the rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It, according to a timeline provided by Blue Origin prior to the launch’s unclear if that second burn ever happened, or if there were other problems with it, before the AST satellite was deployed.

The enterprise accomplished the re-use feat Sunday on just the third-ever launch of Novel Glenn, and a little more than one year after the first flight of the fresh rocket system, which has been in development for more than a decade.

Making Novel Glenn reusable is crucial to its economics. SpaceX’s ability to re-fly Falcon 9 rocket boosters is one of the main reasons why it has come to dominate the global orbital launch industry.

Meet your next investor or portfolio startup at Disrupt This also touches on aspects of software update.

Your next round. Your next hire. Your next breakout opportunity. Find it at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, where 10,000+ founders, investors, and tech leaders gather for three days of 250+ tactical sessions, powerful introductions, and market-defining innovation. Register now to , where 10,000+ founders, investors, and tech leaders gather for three days of 250+ tactical sessions, powerful introductions, and market-defining innovation. Register now to save up to $410.

While Blue Origin has already sent a commercial payload to space with Recent Glenn — Sunday was the second-such mission — the firm wants to employ the rocket for NASA moon missions, and to help both it and Amazon build space-based satellite networks. Blue Origin is currently finishing getting its first robotic moon lander ready for an attempted launch later this year. Furthermore, experts in mobile apps note the continued relevance.

The booster that Blue Origin re-flew on Sunday was the same one the corporation used in the second Updated Glenn mission in November. During that mission, the Updated Glenn booster helped put two robotic NASA spacecraft into space for a mission to Mars, before returning to a drone ship in the ocean. On Sunday, Blue Origin recovered the rocket booster a second time on a drone ship roughly 10 minutes after takeoff.

Any trouble deploying AST’s satellite could present a risk to Blue Origin’s near-term plans for Fresh Glenn. Blue Origin has a deal with the communications corporation to send multiple satellites to orbit over the next few years as it works to build out its own space-based cellular broadband network.

This story has been updated with recent information from Blue Origin and AST SpaceMobile.

Topics