• Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin suspended the launch of its New Glenn rocket Monday during the mission’s countdown, delaying by at least a day an inaugural attempt to reach orbit and compete with SpaceX in the satellite launch market.
• Blue Origin released a statement explaining that they decided not to launch as planned “to address a vehicle subsystem issue that will take us beyond our launch window.”
• New Glenn is carrying the first prototype of Blue Origin’s Blue Ring vehicle, a maneuverable spacecraft the company plans to sell to the Pentagon and commercial customers for national security missions and satellite servicing.

The Blue Origin of Jeff Bezos suspended the launch of its New Glenn rocket after “a few anomalies” during the mission countdown on Monday, delaying by at least a day an inaugural attempt to reach orbit and compete with SpaceX in the satellite launch market beds

Standing 30 stories tall, the partially reusable New Glenn launcher sat on Blue Origin’s launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, ready for a liftoff that was originally scheduled for at 1:00 am ET (0600 GMT) after being loaded with methane and liquid oxygen. propellants

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But at the end of the countdown, Blue Origin repeatedly moved up the liftoff time, nearing the end of New Glenn’s 4 a.m. launch window. A spokeswoman for a live company said mission teams were examining “some anomalies.”

“We are holding back today’s launch attempt to address a vehicle subsystem issue that will take us beyond our launch window,” Blue Origin said in a statement. “We are reviewing opportunities for our next launch attempt.”

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket stands ready during its launch attempt, which was later delayed at least 24 hours, from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 13, 2025. (Reuters/Steve Nesius)

The delay could be at least 24 hours, but is likely longer as the company looks into the issue for the high-risk, high-risk mission.

The culmination of a multibillion-dollar, decade-long development journey, the flight, whenever it takes off, will include an attempt to land New Glenn’s first-stage booster on a sea fairing barge in the ocean Atlantic 10 minutes after takeoff. while the second stage of the rocket continues into orbit.

“What we’re most nervous about is the propulsion landing,” Bezos, founder Blue origin in 2000, he told Reuters in a pre-launch interview. “Obviously on a first flight you could have an anomaly at any phase of the mission, so anything could happen.”

Inside New Glenn’s payload bay is the first prototype of Blue Origin’s Blue Ring vehicle, a maneuverable spacecraft the company plans to sell to the Pentagon and commercial customers for national security and service missions of satellite

A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket is prepared for its maiden launch from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 11, 2025. (Reuters/Joe Skipper/File photo/Reuters)

Getting the spacecraft into its intended orbit on a maiden rocket launch would be a rare achievement a space company.

“If we could do that, it would be a huge success,” Bezos said. “Landing the booster would be the icing on the cake.”

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New Glenn’s development has spanned three Blue Origin CEOs and faced numerous delays as Elon Musk’s SpaceX became an industry juggernaut with its reusable Falcon 9, the world’s most active rocket world

Bezos in late 2023 moved to speed things up at Blue Origin, prioritizing the development of New Glenn and its BE-4 engines. Appointed Amazon veteran Dave Limp as CEO, who employees say brought a sense of urgency compete with SpaceX.

New Glenn is more than twice as powerful as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and has dozens of customer launch contracts collectively worth billions of dollars.