Jeff Bezos’s space venture, Blue Origin, has called off the inaugural launch of its New Glenn rocket, originally scheduled for Monday morning from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The delay was caused by a technical issue with one of the vehicle’s subsystems, which led the company to miss the designated launch window.
The 30-story-tall New Glenn rocket, filled with methane and liquid oxygen propellants, was poised for its first mission aimed at entering the competitive satellite launch market. Despite the initial countdown to liftoff at 1:00 am ET, Blue Origin pushed back the launch multiple times due to “a few anomalies,” which were not fully disclosed. The company announced the decision to stand down and troubleshoot the issues via a post on the social media platform X.
Named after astronaut John Glenn, the New Glenn rocket marks Bezos’s direct challenge to SpaceX’s dominance in the orbital launch market, which is currently led by Elon Musk’s Falcon 9 rockets. G Scott Hubbard, a former senior NASA official, expressed optimism about Blue Origin’s entry into the competitive field, saying, “SpaceX has for the past several years been pretty much the only game in town, and so having a competitor… this is great.”
If the launch goes ahead, Blue Origin plans to land the first-stage booster on a drone ship, named Jacklyn in honor of Bezos’s mother, stationed about 620 miles off the coast in the Atlantic Ocean. This will be Blue Origin’s first attempt at a sea-based landing, following successful landings of its smaller New Shepard rockets used for suborbital tourism.
The upper stage of the New Glenn rocket will aim for Earth orbit, reaching an altitude of about 12,000 miles. Additionally, the mission will test a Defense Department-funded prototype spaceship, Blue Ring, which will remain on board during the six-hour test flight.
Blue Origin’s mission is seen as a pivotal moment for the company as it seeks to challenge SpaceX’s near-monopoly in the orbital launch sector.
