Blue Origin's New Glenn Rocket Fails Launch, Grounded

0:00It's April 21st, welcome in. This is Durham News Today, where local news meets AI. Blue Origin's new Glenn rocket hit a snag on its latest launch, sending a satellite into the wrong orbit thanks to an engine glitch. The company and the Federal Aviation Administration have grounded all future flights until their investigation wraps up. This marks just the third test for the massive rocket. The launch went down Sunday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. That first-stage booster did its job perfectly, touching down on an ocean barge minutes after liftoff. But the upper stage failed short, failing to push the payload high enough. The satellite was meant for AST Space Mobile's network, aiming to beam service straight to cell phones for morbid. Instead, it and the upper stage re-insert the atmosphere Monday, ending the mission. NASA has big plans for New Glenn, like hauling lunar landers for the Artemis program. Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp pointed to preliminary data showing one upper-stage engine didn't produce enough thrust.

1:01No other details yet, but they're pouring over the info now. With eyes on competing against outfits like SpaceX, Blue Origin's got to iron this out quick to stay in the moon race.