US Media: The BlueBird 7 smartphone satellite will deorbit after the Blue Origin launch failure.
Netizens: But clearly, correctly deploying the primary payload must take priority over recovering the first stage booster.
As reported by Space News on April 19 (April 20 Beijing Time).
The space launch company Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos, has just successfully recovered its first reusable orbital rocket, but the payload ultimately ended up in the wrong position in space.
Indeed, until 9:40 AM Eastern Time, the company’s updates still carried a celebratory tone. At that time, Blue Origin acknowledged an issue on social media:
The latest BlueBird 7 satellite, carried by Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket, was deployed into the wrong orbit.
"We have confirmed payload separation.
AST SpaceMobile has confirmed the satellite is powered on.
The payload was delivered to a non-standard orbit.
We are currently assessing the situation and will provide timely updates once more detailed information becomes available," the company wrote.
Later on Sunday, AST SpaceMobile released its latest update, which included some bad news.
"Although the satellite has separated from the launch vehicle and successfully powered on, its orbit is too low to be sustained using onboard propulsion technology, and it will be deorbited," AST SpaceMobile wrote. "The expected cost of the satellite will be covered by the company’s insurance policy."
The AST SpaceMobile BlueBird 7 satellite was originally planned to join the largest communication array ever deployed in low Earth orbit, aimed at expanding network capabilities to deliver space-based cellular broadband directly to consumer smartphones.
BlueBird 7 is one of the largest satellites in space, with an antenna area of 223 square meters.
It remains unclear what impact the BlueBird 7 incident will have on future missions.
This news has sparked heated discussion among American netizens.
Jimmy from Philadelphia said: "Not trying to attack Blue Origin maliciously, but clearly, correctly placing the main payload must come before recovering the first-stage booster. I've always questioned the founder of Blue Origin—he treats this as a hobby, putting vanity-driven goals ahead of the company's core mission. I mean, the industry doesn't need suborbital rockets, yet they wasted nearly 12 years tinkering with New Shepard, when they should have focused on achieving orbital flight. That's time they can never recover."
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1862938680498188/
Disclaimer: This article represents the personal views of the author