CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Blue Origin has postponed the inaugural launch of its impressive New Glenn rocket due to unexpected technical difficulties encountered just minutes before liftoff.
The New Glenn, standing at 320 feet (98 meters) tall, was scheduled to take off in the early hours of Monday from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, carrying a prototype satellite. However, launch controllers faced an unidentified issue with the rocket during the final countdown, which ultimately led to a halt in the countdown and a decision to drain the rocket of its fuel immediately.
As of now, Blue Origin has not provided a new date for the launch, indicating that the team requires additional time to address and rectify the problem at hand.
This test flight was initially postponed due to unfavorable sea conditions that could have jeopardized the plan to land the first-stage booster on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean.
The New Glenn rocket honors the legacy of John Glenn, who was the first American to orbit the Earth. This new rocket is significantly larger, being five times the height of Blue Origin’s New Shepard, which is designed to ferry paying customers to the edge of space from its operations in Texas.
Founded 25 years ago by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin saw him involved in the launch countdown from Mission Control, situated at the company’s rocket manufacturing facility near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, approximately 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Orlando.
During a conversation on Sunday evening, Bezos expressed determination, stating, “No matter what happens, we’re going to pick ourselves up and keep going.”
