Watch live as Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket launches from Florida – BBC.com
The launch of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket is postponed due to a “vehicle subsystem issue”The reusable rocket had been due to set off from Florida, but was delayed multiple timesBezos wants his company to become a rival to Elon Musk’s SpaceXThe rocket, New Glenn, is named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit EarthOnce it does launch, the rocket booster is designed to land on a platform in the Atlantic – named after Bezos’s mother – so it can be used againEdited by Francesca GillettAdam GoldsmithLive reporterJust six minutes before Jeff Bezos’ rocket was set to blast into space at 08:15 GMT (03:15 EST), this morning’s launch was called off. There was confusion here in the newsroom as 10-minute countdowns kept being extended to 35 minutes – as teams on the ground in Florida hurried to get things ready.Eventually though time ran out, with Blue Origin saying the postponement was down to a “vehicle subsystem issue”. We don’t yet know when the next launch will be, but Bezos’ team says they’ll now take a look at opportunities for another attempt.Called New Glenn after John Glenn – the first American to orbit the earth – this rocket was a big moment for Blue Origin as will be its first launch into orbit, as our science correspondent Pallab Ghosh explains.When finally launched, the idea is that the rocket booster will detach and land on a platform in the Atlantic where it can then be reused – a manoeuvre mastered by Elon Musk’s Starship programme in October last year. But after a morning of constant reassessments, Bezos will now have to wait a little longer for his chance to match his rival. Thank you for joining us this morning for our coverage of Jeff Bezos’ now-postponed launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket. Here’s a quick reminder of how it all unfolded:Academic Jill Stuart who studies space exploration at the London School of Economics, calls the postponement “disappointing” but “not a huge surprise”.She stresses that it only requires a small variable to change to upset an entire launch: “Because the launch window is quite small, there’s a lot of different components that are having to come together at the same time.”This could be down to a small detail which puts the rocket at risk of exploding or compromises safety, Stuart suggests.As for what’s next, she says today’s failed launch won’t hinder Jeff Bezos’ attempts to rival Elon Musk’s SpaceX scheme.“They’ll reschedule and I think we’ll see another attempt in the coming days,” she adds. “I think we’ll continue to see healthy competition between the two going forwards.”About midway during the scheduled launch period earlier, a Blue Origin spokeswoman said the team was “busy” and “continuing to work through a few anomalies before we can proceed into terminal count”.”We’ve got the engineers looking at all that data, we’ve got the controllers working through workarounds,” she said at about 07:20 GMT – about an hour before it was abandoned.”Something I think people don’t always think about is that we have an enormous amount of what we’re doing here in pre-launch procedures that is scripted, we can plan it, but when off-nominal things are happening we’ve got a team of controllers who can manually operate these systems. “[The team] are working through everything they can to make sure we have a chance to launch today.”Blue Origin has not yet given a date for a new attempt to launch. Following the news that the launch has been stood down, a spokeswoman for Blue Origin explains on the livestream that the mission has been postponed to give the team “more time” to work on the subsystem issue. “When we know when the next opportunity is of course we will let everybody know.”The launch team will now “detank” the vehicle and then “assess what other things we might want to get done in our downtime and that is what’s going to guide when the next launch opportunity will be”.And with that, the livestream has now finished.We’ve just heard today’s launch has been cancelled. In a post on X, Blue Origin says: “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.”We’re just waiting to hear what’s happened, as the countdown has now disappeared from the Blue Origin livestream.The latest launch time we had was 08:15 GMT (3:15 local time) – but that is no longer showing.Earlier, the spokeswoman on Blue Origin’s livestream said mission teams were examining “a few anomalies”. Pallab GhoshScience correspondentSpaceX’s approach to innovation has been quite different to
Nasa’s or any private sector firm. The norm had been to develop carefully and
minimise the risks of a failure when building systems. SpaceX on the other hand
have innovated quickly, failed quickly and learned quickly. Explosions were the
norm when developing its Falcon and Starship rocket systems, but each test
flight has gone better than the previous one and the pace at which it has been
developing new lower cost ways of getting to space, culminating in the catching of Starship’s booster on the launchpad, has been blistering.Jeff Bezos stepped down as Amazon’s CEO in 2021 to focus more on
Blue Origin. Bezos’ influence and his appointment of a new head of Blue Origin
seems to have shifted the firm’s culture and speeded up the development of New
Glenn.On the repeated delays, Blue Origin says in its livestream they want to give the team the “right time and the space they need”.The team adds that the weather continues to stay “in balance” at Cape Canaveral as well as out at sea. “For the moment we have decided to put more time on the clock which means that we still have a chance, still have the opportunity to launch this evening,” says Blue Origin.”We have spent years designing this rocket, we have spent months and months designing this mission… if we need a couple more minutes especially on this first launch, that is a-OK.”As a reminder, there was originally a three-hour launch window that began at 06:00 GMT this morning. Launches on previous days have been abandoned due to conditions at sea.Yep, another delay. The space flight is now set to take off at 08:15 GMT, that’s 03:15 EST in Florida.Blue Origin are saying that this is for regular checks to continue to take place. We’ll keep you posted on any updates we get until then and of course you can keep following above by clicking watch live.Pallab GhoshScience correspondentThe launch is a big moment for Jeff Bezos because he has fallen
far behind in his personal space race with fellow billionaire Elon Musk. Bezos’ space company Blue Origin started at about the same time as Musk’s
SpaceX but since then Musk’s firm has launched more than 400 of its Falcon 9
rockets into orbit and is testing out its giant Starship rocket which it hopes
will send astronauts to the Moon and one day possibly on to Mars. In that time
Blue Origin has had no launches into orbit. Its New Shepard rocket has been
launched into space briefly successfully 27 times, but not into orbit because
it is not powerful enough.New Glenn is capable of going into orbit and potentially to the
Moon – so the rocket system is Bezos’ attempt at catching up with his space
rival. The brand new system is unlikely to go perfectly, but the fact that New
Glenn is finally ready for its first test flight is a signal to SpaceX that
Blue Origin is hard on its heels and planning to take them on for contracts to
deploy satellites, build space stations and taking astronauts to the Moon.Adam GoldsmithLive reporterJeff Bezos went to space himself on his New Shepard flight programmeToday’s space launch isn’t Jeff Bezos’ first attempt to enter the space race.In fact, the Amazon founder has so far flown 47 people into space through his New Shepard programme since it first launched in April 2015. The scheme – which began flying humans in 2021 – has run dozens of so-called “missions”, with people able to apply to fly as an astronaut where they will be taken over 62 miles (100km) above Earth. Unlike rigorous training programmes required of professional astronauts employed by the likes of Nasa, applicants for the New Shepard programme only need to undertake a two day course. Bezos even became a space tourist himself when he exited the earth’s atmosphere on the programme in July 2021, making a flight over just over 10 minutes with a small crew.The launch has just faced one more delay. We are now looking at lift-off in just over 30 minutes at 07:48 GMT (02:48 EST). There’s been another delay to today’s launch – it’s now expected at 07:27 GMT (02:27 EST in Florida). As we’ve been reporting, these setbacks are quite common, and just indicate that teams are taking a little longer to complete their checks than anticipated.Today’s launch is an effort on the part of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX project.Yesterday, Bezos told Reuters he wasn’t concerned about the possibility of his rival being granted favours as a result of his upcoming job in the US government with President-elect Donald Trump.”Elon has been very clear that he’s doing this for the public interest and not for his personal gain,” Bezos said. “And I take him at face value”. A short while ago, Musk posted a message on X to Blue Origin that said: “Good luck!”Musk watches a SpaceX launch alongside Donald Trump in November last yearAs we’ve been reporting this morning, the launch has seen a couple of minor delays so far – with the latest expected lift-off now due at 07:07 GMT (02:07 EST). Blue Origin has stressed this morning that the delays are simply indicative of the team taking a “couple more minutes” to complete all their checks, adding: “That is just fine… so we might see a little bit more of that happening here”.A little earlier, the company said one factor for the delay was weather checks, both at the point of lift-off and where the landing ship is in the Atlantic for the booster.This launch may evoke memories of the incredible images from SpaceX’s Starship launch in October last year.During that flight, the SpaceX team attempted something that had never been done before.Unlike in previous flights, when the booster (the bottom part of the rocket which helps launch it) falls away, this time the booster slowed itself down and descended gently back toward the launchpad for a pair of giant mechanical arms to catch it – in what’s known as the “chopsticks manoeuvre”.This launch is a huge moment for Blue Origin and Jeff Bezos, as the company looks to position itself as a real competitor to SpaceX and land the booster on a drone ship in the Atlantic named Jacklyn, after Bezos’ mother.This video can not be playedWatch: SpaceX Starship booster caught in mid airWe’re just hearing of another delay to today’s launch. We’re now expecting the New Glenn rocket to take off for its maiden voyage at 07:07 GMT – that’s 02:07 EST in Florida. Stick with us as we bring you updates, and you can follow along with the team’s preparations by pressing watch live at the top of the page.With fewer than 30 minutes to go before the launch, a number of last minute checks are happening. Blue Origin explains they include a system’s functional check – encompassing propulsion, avionics (aviation electronics) and communications. The company’s engineers will also be running diagnostics, checking flight computers and telemetry (taking recordings), while one last weather check will take place before the launch covering real-time data on windspeed, direction, temperature, humidity among other things.Click watch live above to hear more. © 2025 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.
