{"id":642021,"date":"2026-04-20T13:22:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T11:22:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=642021"},"modified":"2026-04-20T13:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T11:26:14","slug":"mission-failure-for-spacex-and-starlink-rivals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/science\/642021-mission-failure-for-spacex-and-starlink-rivals.html","title":{"rendered":"Mission failure for SpaceX and Starlink rivals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

AST SpaceMobile shares plunged in early trading on Monday after Blue Origin\u2019s flagship New Glenn rocket failed to correctly place a payload it was carrying for the Texas-based satellite networking company into its intended orbit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shares of AST, which is building out a network to deliver connectivity from orbit directly to mobile phones, in direct competion with Starlink, fell 14% before markets opened in New York. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the loss holds, it would mark the biggest intraday drop in more than two months.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Glenn was carrying a BlueBird satellite built by AST, which is seeking to have about 45 satellites in orbit by the end of the year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company has\u00a0signed contracts\u00a0with Jeff Bezos-founded Blue Origin and Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX to launch dozens of satellites into orbit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday\u2019s launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida marked the first time Blue Origin\u2019s much-delayed New Glenn rocket reused a booster, and the first stage was recovered after the flight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When AST\u2019s satellite separated from New Glenn\u2019s second stage, it entered an \u201coff-nominal orbit,\u201d or the wrong orbit, Blue Origin said in a post on X. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The incorrect placement was \u201ctoo low to sustain operations\u201d and the satellite will have to be de-orbited \u2014 made to burn up in the atmosphere, AST SpaceMobile said in a\u00a0statement<\/a>\u00a0Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe silver lining is that there was only one satellite on board, whereas future New Glenn launches may have as many as eight of AST\u2019s BlueBirds,\u201d William Blair analyst Bryce Sandberg said in a note, adding that it will be difficult for the company to reach its goal of 45 satellites in orbit this year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The satellite launch attempt was the first of the year for AST, which started 2026 with seven satellites in orbit. Insurance will cover the cost of the lost payload, AST said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While it successfully reused and landed the first-stage booster on its New Glenn rocket, Blue Origin failed to correctly place a payload into its intended orbit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":642022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31750],"tags":[68138,38896,98671,11373,4246,96753,563,11375,48987],"class_list":["post-642021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","tag-ast-spacemobile","tag-blue-origin","tag-bluebird-satellite","tag-elon-musk","tag-jeff-bezos","tag-new-glenn","tag-satellite-internet","tag-spacex","tag-starlink"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642021"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642021"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":642025,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642021\/revisions\/642025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}