Jan. 13 (UPI) — Blue Origin scrubbed the launch of its new heavy-lift rocket early Monday, once again postponing the maiden flight of its New Glenn rocket.
The two-stage reusable New Glenn launch vehicle was scheduled to lift off from Launch Complex 36 at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station during a three-hour window that opened at 1 a.m. EST Monday.
After the window opened, the launch was repeatedly pushed until ultimately being scrubbed.
In a statement, Blue Origin said it was standing down the NG-1 Mission to “troubleshoot a vehicle subsystem issue.”
“We’re reviewing opportunities for our next launch attempt,” it said on X.
The launch was earlier scheduled for Friday but was pushed to Sunday due to unfavorable weather in the Atlantic where the first-stage booster — named So You’re Telling Me There’s A Chance — was to be retrieved by the Jacklyn droneship.
Persistent conditions in the Atlantic again saw the launch moved to Monday. Ahead of the rescheduled attempt, Blue Origin made no announcement regarding weather but stated the launch team was proceeding with fueling New Glenn with propellant.
As the launch window opened, Blue Origin published a statement to its X account, stating NG-1 Mission’s goal is for their rocket to reach orbit.
“Anything beyond that is icing on the cake,” it said.
“We know landing the booster on our first try offshore in the Atlantic is ambitious — but we’re going for it. No matter what happens, we’ll learn, refine and apply that knowledge to our next launch.”
The 320-foot New Glenn orbital-class rocket — named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth — is set to transport to space a payload of the Blue Ring Pathfinder, which is designed to test communications, power and controls systems for Blue Origin’s multi-use Blue Ring space platform.
According to Blue Origin, New Glenn’s first-stage booster is designed for a minimum of 25 flights. With a nearly 23-foot class payload fairing, New Glenn boasts twice the volume of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 17-foot payload fairing option.
The highly-anticipated launch will mark a significant milestone for the Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin, which was founded in 2000 and has been working on the New Glenn rocket for more than a decade.
A successful launch would help New Glenn achieve Department of Defense certification, positioning Blue Origin to compete for private and government contracts with SpaceX, owned by the world’s richest person Elon Musk, which has dominated the satellite launch service industry.
Bezos, according to Forbes, sits at second on the world’s richest list.