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Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin experienced a significant setback over the weekend.
During its third launch, the company’s New Glenn rocket failed to deliver its payload, a communication satellite by customer AST SpaceMobile, into a high-enough orbit, turning it into nothing more than a piece of space junk — and an expensive insurance claim.
It wasn’t just an embarrassing setback following over a decade of the launch vehicle’s development, either. It also could imperil NASA’s ambitious plans to return astronauts to the Moon, experts warn.
For one, as the New York Times reports, the investigation into the failure, which is being overseen by the Federal Aviation Administration, could drag on.
“It could take them three, four months, or longer,” American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Todd Harrison told the newspaper. “If it goes longer than that, then that’s disappointing, and that starts to impact the Artemis program.”
The New Glenn rocket was designed to launch Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander, one of two options the space agency is tapping to deliver astronauts to the lunar surface as part of its Artemis program. The other company NASA is contracting is SpaceX, whose Starship rocket also has yet to successfully deliver functional payloads into space, and has repeatedly exploded during launch attempts.
The clock is certainly ticking. The first Artemis Moon landing was originally scheduled for 2024, but has now been pushed back all the way to 2028. It could easily slip further, and the New Glenn failure isn’t helping.
Next, NASA is planning to test one or both of the vehicles in Earth’s orbit during its upcoming Artemis 3 mission, which is tentatively scheduled for some time next year. While the astronauts won’t be traveling to the Moon, they will be practicing docking procedures. That’s something that will require several rocket launches, including NASA’s Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft, to go off without a hitch and at roughly the same time.
“That’s also going to be a demonstration of whether or not we can actually pull off these multiple launch scenarios that we’re betting the farm on,” Purdue University professor and former NASA official Daniel Dumbacher told the NYT. “It’ll be new, and it’ll be the first time you’re doing all that, so that it will have its challenges.”
Without being able to launch its Blue Moon lander if New Glenn remains grounded, plenty of questions remain whether Bezos’ space company will be able to play a part in NASA’s Artemis 3 mission.
Blue Origin is hoping to launch a Mark 1 test lander as part of an inaugural demonstration mission all the way to the Moon before the end of the year. It’s an extremely ambitious plan considering its New Glenn rocket failed to deliver a far smaller payload into a stable orbit.
“If I’m a year out and I don’t know what my mission profile looks like yet for something I’m doing for the first time, I’m getting nervous really quick,” Dumbacher told the NYT.
More on the launch failure: Jeff Bezos’ Space Company Just Screwed Up Very, Very Badly
