Blue Origin postpones first launch of its powerful New Glenn rocket - UPDATED
Blue Origin's first New Glenn rocket stands on the pad on Jan. 13, 2025. A technical issue scuttled a planned liftoff attempt that day. Photo: Blue Origin
Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin will have to wait longer to make its long-awaited maiden orbital voyage with its giant New Glenn rocket after the launch was canceled Sunday night due to unspecified technical issues.
"We are standing down today's launch attempt to troubleshoot a vehicle subsystem issue that will take us beyond our launch window," Ariane Cornell, a Blue Origin executive, said during a live feed watched by hundreds of thousands of viewers, News.Az reports, citing AFP.Blue Origin originally aimed to fly this debut mission, which it calls NG-1, on Friday (Jan. 10) but pushed the try back 72 hours due to rough seas in the patch of the Atlantic Ocean where the rocket's first stage is expected to land.
Blue Origin has a few days to address the issue; the current NG-1 launch window runs through Jan. 16. The test flight will launch a pathfinder version of Blue Ring, a new spacecraft platform the company has built.
New Glenn, which has been in development for about a decade, is Blue Origin's first orbital-class rocket. The company already flies a reusable suborbital vehicle called New Shepard, which takes people and payloads on brief trips to space.
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Blue Origin is set to launch the debut mission of its powerful New Glenn rocket no earlier than early Monday, January 13, following a delay.
New Glenn is scheduled to lift off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Monday's wee hours during a three-hour window that opens at 1 a.m. EST (0600 GMT), weather permitting, News.az reports, citing Space.com.
The launch was initially scheduled for Jan. 10 and then Jan. 12, but Blue Origin postponed it due to rough offshore weather that could affect a rocket landing on the company's recovery ship in the Atlantic. Similar weather concerns exist for Monday's attempt and Space Force officials forecast the chance of good liftoff conditions are 50% at launch time.
The 320-foot-tall (98 meters) New Glenn, which Blue Origin has been developing for about a decade, features a reusable first stage, like SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.
Blue Origin will attempt to recover the first stage on Sunday morning, landing the booster in the Atlantic Ocean on its Landing Platform Vessel 1. That barge is nicknamed Jacklyn, after the mother of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos.
New Glenn won't deploy any satellites on Monday's mission, which Blue Origin calls NG-1. But the rocket is carrying a payload: a test version of the company's new "Blue Ring" spacecraft platform.
"The pathfinder will validate Blue Ring’s communications capabilities from orbit to ground," Blue Origin wrote in a mission description last month.
"The mission will also test its in-space telemetry, tracking and command hardware, and ground-based radiometric tracking that will be used on the future Blue Ring production space vehicle," the company added. "The pathfinder will remain onboard New Glenn’s second stage for the duration of an expected six-hour mission."
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