CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Blue Origin postponed the inaugural launch of its new large-scale rocket early Monday due to technical difficulties.
The New Glenn rocket, which stands at 320 feet (98 meters), was scheduled to take off just before dawn from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
However, the team encountered an undisclosed issue with the rocket during the crucial final moments of the countdown and ultimately ran short on time. Following the decision to halt the countdown, the crew immediately began to drain the fuel from the rocket’s tanks.
Blue Origin has not yet provided a new date for the launch, indicating that more time is necessary to address the technical problem.
This test flight had already faced delays due to inclement sea conditions, which raised concerns over landing the first-stage booster on a floating platform positioned in the Atlantic Ocean.
The New Glenn rocket is named in honor of John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth. It is significantly larger than Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, which is used to transport paying customers on suborbital journeys from Texas.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos established Blue Origin 25 years ago and was present in Mission Control during Monday’s countdown, located at the rocket manufacturing facility near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, approximately 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Orlando.
In response to the postponement, Bezos expressed a resilient mindset, stating that regardless of setbacks, “we’re going to pick ourselves up and keep going.”
