Jeff Bezos’ space tech company Blue Origin placed a customer’s satellite in the wrong orbit on Sunday, sending that firm’s stock tumbling Monday.
Shares of Nasdaq-listed AST SpaceMobile fell nearly 12% in premarket trading and were down roughly 8% from Friday’s close as of mid-day Monday.
Blue Origin launched the “BlueBird 7” satellite from its Cape Canaveral, Fla., area site aboard its New Glenn rocket — but the satellite wasn’t hurled high enough, according to AST SpaceMobile.
“BlueBird 7 was placed into a lower than planned orbit by the upper stage of the launch vehicle,” the company said in a statement. “While the satellite separated from the launch vehicle and powered on, the altitude is too low to sustain operations with its on-board thruster technology and will de-orbited.”
De-orbiting is a term of art referring to taking a satellite out of orbit and letting it burn up in the atmosphere or fall to the ground, according to NASA.
Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said in a Monday post on X that his company “clearly didn’t deliver the mission our customer wanted” and one of the rockets’ engines “didn’t produce sufficient thrust to reach our target orbit. Blue Origin is leading the anomaly investigation with [Federal Aviation Administration] oversight to learn from the data and implement the improvements needed to quickly return to flight operations.”
Blue Origin said on X: “The payload was placed into an off-nominal orbit. We are currently assessing and will update when we have more detailed information.” The company hasn’t released further information.
AST SpaceMobile didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The satellite would have offered space-based cellular broadband for smartphones, designed for both commercial and government applications.
The mishap marked an apparent blow to Bezos’ ambitions to catch up to Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket business. Blue Origin has been working to ramp up flights with its New Glenn rocket and work through a backlog of flights.
Texas-based AST had invited shareholders to watch the ill-fated launch live.
“The event had a festive atmosphere, but the mood changed when word circulated that AST’s satellite was placed in the improper orbit, which threatened to jeopardize the mission. It was later determined that the satellite was lost,” William Blair analyst Louie DiPalma said in a research note Monday.
AST’s ambitions of sending 45 satellites into orbit this year will be hard to achieve now, he added.
“Even though shares will likely be under pressure today, the beat goes on,” DiPalma said, adding that AST gained valuable experience in working with Blue Origin.
The satellite would have been AST’s eighth launched into low-earth orbit, the company said. It still expects to launch a satellite every month or two this year.
While Clear Street analyst Greg Pendy said in a note published Monday that he maintains a buy rating on the stock, he cut his year-end price target to $115, from $137. That’s still a 34% gain from Friday’s close, but much less than his previously forecast 60% jump in shares.
The cost of the doomed satellite is expected to be recovered under the company’s insurance policy.
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