The Federal Aviation Administration said on Monday that Blue Origin’s new Glenn Rocket could fly again, saying in a review of the January disaster the Rocket had successfully launched its debut, but crashed while landing.
As standard in events like this, the FAA grounded the rocket immediately after the accident while a company owned by Jeff Bezos was investigating.
“The final accident report has identified the proximity of the disaster, as the first stage of the new Glen prevents the engine from being rebooted, causing the loss of the stage,” the FAA said in a press release.
New Glen was released on January 16th on the NG-1 mission from the launch complex at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which carries payloads into orbit. Just as the first stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lands on a drone ship stationed in the Atlantic, Blue Origin’s Heavy-Lift rocket is designed to be reused.
However, the first stage of the name “So you say I have a chance” was when shrapnel from the booster fell into the sea and didn’t reach the Blue Origin lander.
“Our review confirmed that all debris had landed in designated hazard areas without any threat to public safety,” Blue Origin said in a statement.
The investigation found seven corrective actions would be taken before another new Glenn was launched.
“We expect to return to the flight at the end of spring and try to land the booster again,” Blue Origin said.
The FAA indicated that it would confirm that corrective measures have been taken before the NG-2 mission flew, but said the rocket was cleared to fly again.
Bezos is looking to join powerful rockets in competitors SpaceX and the United Launch Alliance. It took years to make its debut flight, but Newglen made history a commercial company and its first rocket, reaching orbit on its first attempt.
Companies like SpaceX, Rocket Lab, Virgin Orbit, Astra Space and Relativity Space all failed in their efforts.
The mission served as one of two necessary flights to earn Space Force certification to open the new Glen as an option to fly the Department of Defense national security mission.
The company has several commercial customers, including Bezos’ old company Amazon. The customer has signed at least 12 launches and sent hundreds of satellites for Project Kuiper Internet Constellation.
New Glenn is also tapped by NASA, flying a pair of Mars-bound satellites, becoming a launching rocket for Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Lunar Landers.
Bezos sunk billions of dollars. This previously only launched new suborbital shepherd rockets from the West Texas launch site.
Blue Origin took over the LEASE of the LC-36 in 2015, investing around $1 billion in the pad site alone. It was previously used in government launches from 1962 to 2005, including the 1967 Lunar Lander Surveyor 1 and some of the Mariner Probes.
Original issue: March 31, 2025, 2:29pm EDT
