In a fictitious galaxy far far way, Han Solo once said never tell him the odds. But back in the real world, it was far from the truth. On Sunday morning, when Blue Origin launched the third flight of its New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, only for the satellite on board to end up in the wrong orbit, too low to survive.
New Glenn lifted off within its scheduled window on April 19, carrying AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird 7 communications satellite to low-Earth orbit. The rocket's reusable first-stage booster, named "Never Tell Me the Odds", a nod to Star Wars, successfully landed on Blue Origin’s Atlantic platform approximately nine minutes after launch, completing its second flight.
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) April 19, 2026
That was the good news. The bad news came from AST SpaceMobile in an official statement issued the same day. "During the New Glenn 3 mission, BlueBird 7 was placed into a lower-than-planned orbit by the upper stage of the launch vehicle," the company said. "While the satellite separated from the launch vehicle and powered on, the altitude is too low to sustain operations with its onboard thruster technology and will be de-orbited."
The satellite switched on, it separated cleanly, but it is stuck too close to Earth to function, and its own engines are not powerful enough to push it higher. It will be guided back into the atmosphere to burn up. AST SpaceMobile said the cost of the satellite is expected to be covered by insurance.
BlueBird 7 would have been the eighth AST satellite in low Earth orbit, part of the company's ambitious plan to build a space-based cellular network that connects directly to ordinary smartphones without any special hardware.
The company said it is currently manufacturing satellites through BlueBird 32, with the next three (BlueBird 8 through 10) ready to ship within approximately 30 days. AST added that it still targets around 45 satellites in orbit by the end of 2026, with launches expected at a pace of one to two per month.
The setback arrives during an unusually eventful period for space exploration. NASA’s Artemis II mission, the first crewed lunar flyby since the Apollo programme ended in 1972, was completed successfully between April 1 and 11, 2026, carrying four astronauts further from Earth than any humans had ever travelled.
