Blue Origin's huge New Glenn rocket grounded after launch mishap

Blue Origin's huge New Glenn rocket has been temporarily grounded. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is requiring an investigation into New Glenn's third-ever mission, which launched on Sunday morning (April 19) and resulted in the loss of its payload — the BlueBird 7 internet-beaming satellite. "The FAA will oversee the Blue Origin -led investigation, be involved in every step of the process, and approve Blue Origin's final report, including any corrective actions," the FAA wrote in an update on Monday (April 20). Sunday's mission, which Blue Origin called NG-3, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The 322-foot-tall (98 meters) New Glenn performed well at first; its reusable first stage even aced its return to Earth, landing as planned in the Atlantic Ocean atop the Blue Origin droneship " Jacklyn ." But the rocket's upper stage ran into problems while hauling BlueBird 7 to low Earth orbit (LEO). One of the stage's two BE-3U engines didn't produce enough thrust during a key burn, according to Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp , and the satellite was deployed into the wrong spot as a result. "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 [be] de-orbited," BlueBird 7's operator, the Texas company AST SpaceMobile, wrote in an update on Sunday . …