Blue Origin scrubs 1st New Glenn rocket launch due to technical issue – Space.com
The company is now targeting early Thursday (Jan. 16) for the liftoff.
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We’ll have to wait a little longer to see Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket lift off for the first time.Blue Origin, the aerospace company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, aimed to launch its first New Glenn heavy-lift rocket from Florida’s Space Coast this morning (Jan. 13), during a three-hour window that opened at 1 a.m. EST (0600 GMT).Blue Origin pushed the planned launch time back multiple times before finally calling the attempt off at around 3:10 a.m. EST (0810 GMT).”We’re standing down on today’s launch attempt to troubleshoot a vehicle subsystem issue that will take us beyond our launch window. We’re reviewing opportunities for our next launch attempt,” the company announced via X.That post did not identify the subsystem or the issue, and neither did the hosts of the company’s launch webcast.Related: Blue Origin: Everything you need to know about the private spaceflight companyOn Monday evening, the company revealed the cause of the scrub to be “ice forming in a purge line on an auxiliary power unit that powers some of our hydraulic systems.” That X post with that news also announced a new launch target: Tuesday morning (Jan. 14), during a three-hour window that opens at 1 a.m. EST (0600 GMT). A few hours later on Monday, however, Blue Origin pushed the try back to Thursday morning (Jan. 16), during that same window.Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!This isn’t the first launch delay for the 320-foot-tall (98 meters) New Glenn, which features a reusable first stage.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. (If all goes according to plan, that touchdown will occur on a ship nicknamed Jacklyn, after Bezos’ mother.)— Blue Origin fires up 2nd stage of huge New Glenn rocket ahead of debut launch (video) — NASA delays ESCAPADE Mars launch on Blue Origin’s giant New Glenn rocket to 2025 to avoid potential cost overruns — New Glenn: Blue Origin’s reusable rocketBlue 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.Editor’s note: This story was updated at 7:25 p.m. ET on Jan. 13 with the cause of that day’s launch scrub and the new target date of Jan. 14, then again at 9:54 p.m. ET with the new target date of Jan. 16.Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, “Out There,” was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.Space mysteries: How does the ISS stay in orbit without falling to Earth?SpaceX launches 21 Starlink satellites from Florida, lands booster for 15th time (video)What happened to the flags Apollo astronauts left on the moon?Space is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.©
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