Blue Origin received permission to fly the massive New Glenn rocket after an accident in April

Blue Origin’s massive new rocket, New Glenn, is no longer grounded. The Federal Aviation Administration has cleared the rocket to fly again after the upper stage failed to deliver a commercial payload during an April launch, the company said Friday.

Blue Origin didn’t provide many details, but said in a post on X that New Glenn’s upper stage “experienced an unacceptable thermal condition” that caused one of the three rocket engines to produce less thrust than expected. As a result, the AST SpaceMobile satellite that Blue Origin was supposed to put into orbit burned up in Earth’s atmosphere instead. (AST SpaceMobile said it had insurance coverage to cover the cost of the missing satellite.) Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight company filed a report with the FAA and took “corrective actions,” but did not detail those actions.

The accident occurred on New Glenn’s third flight ever, which went off without any problem. The company has successfully reused the New Glenn booster stage for the first time ever and landed it for the second time on a drone ship in the ocean.

The clearance means Blue Origin can now return to its aggressive schedule for New Glenn this year. The company said it plans to launch the rocket up to 12 times by the end of 2026, although it is unclear how much impact the one-month pause will have on those ambitions.