Blue Origin, the space technology company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, announced on Monday that it had canceled the debut launch of its New Glenn rocket, according to a post on the microblogging platform X.
Blue Origin stated on X, “We are postponing today’s launch attempt to address an issue with a vehicle subsystem that will extend beyond our launch window. We are evaluating options for our next launch attempt.”
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Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin had set the first launch of its New Glenn rocket from Florida early on Monday. However, the team delayed the countdown to address unspecified last-minute issues as the company prepared the rocket for its inaugural mission into Earth orbit, aiming to enter the competitive satellite launch market.
The New Glenn rocket, standing 30 stories tall, stood on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, filled with methane and liquid oxygen propellants.
The team originally set the launch for 1:00 a.m. ET (0600 GMT), but as the countdown progressed, Blue Origin continuously delayed the launch time, nearing the end of the designated window at 4:00 a.m. By 2:20 a.m., a company spokesperson said that mission teams were addressing “a few anomalies,” though they did not reveal the exact details of the issues, according to a Reuters report.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn launch vehicle
The rocket, named in honor of legendary astronaut John Glenn, represents Amazon founder Bezos’s challenge to the one person wealthier than him: Elon Musk. Musk’s company, SpaceX, leads the orbital launch market with its highly successful Falcon 9 rockets, which play a crucial role in the commercial sector, the Pentagon, and NASA.
“SpaceX has been the dominant player for several years, so having a competitor… this is fantastic,” AFP quoted G Scott Hubbard, a retired senior NASA official, as saying.
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