Spaceflight

“The final mishap report identified the proximate cause of the mishap as an inability of New Glenn’s first stage to restart the engines, preventing a reentry burn from occurring, and resulting in the loss of the stage,” the FAA said in its statement. It noted that Blue Origin identified seven corrective actions, but did not enumerate them.

“Our ambitious attempt to land the booster, ‘So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance,’ was unsuccessful due to our three BE-4 engines not re-igniting properly,” the company said in a social media post published the same time as the FAA statement. “The report identified seven corrective actions, focusing on propellant management and engine bleed control improvements, which we’re already addressing.”

The company said its next flight was planned for late spring, which will include another booster landing attempt.

The FAA also announced March 31 that it accepted the findings of a separate investigation into the loss of SpaceX’s Starship vehicle on its seventh test flight, which took place the same day as the first New Glenn launch.