Blue Origin scrubs second launch of New Glenn as a result of climate, cruise ship site visitors

Jeff Bezos’ house firm Blue Origin scrubbed the second launch of its New Glenn mega-rocket deliberate for Sunday afternoon as a result of considerations with climate, a number of minor issues with launch pad gear, and at the very least one cruise ship that strayed too near the flight path.

It’s not instantly clear when the corporate will get one other go at launching New Glenn’s second mission. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) introduced restrictions on house launches late final week because of the authorities shutdown. On November 7, Blue Origin posted on X that the corporate was working with the FAA to verify Sunday’s launch could happen. After the launch scrub Sunday, the corporate stated it’s “reviewing alternatives for our subsequent launch try primarily based on forecasted climate.”

This mission is a vital one for Blue Origin for a lot of causes.

For one, the corporate remains to be proving out the complete reusability of the rocket. New Glenn efficiently reached orbit throughout its first launch in January, however the booster exploded earlier than it may land on a drone ship within the ocean. Blue Origin hopes to land the booster for the primary time throughout this second flight.

That is additionally the primary industrial mission for New Glenn. The rocket will carry NASA’s ESCAPADE spacecraft into house, the place it’ll embark on a mission to Mars. New Glenn can also be carrying a tech demonstrator for Viasat, which is a part of one other NASA mission. Proving New Glenn can safely ship payloads to house — and do it affordably thanks largely to the rockets reusability — is essential if Blue Origin needs to compete in opposition to Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Blue Origin initially deliberate to aim the second launch earlier this 12 months, however delayed it a number of occasions. Sunday’s launch window in Cape Canaveral, Florida initially opened at 2:45 p.m. native time, and the corporate had a window of roughly 90 minutes. The climate worries and the launch pad gear points brought on that launch time to slide a number of occasions.

With the clock operating once more simply minutes earlier than a launch try, a cruise ship entered the flight path, in response to the printed. Whereas that ship was anticipated to clear earlier than the 4:15 p.m. shut of the launch window, the climate was nonetheless a priority, and brought on the corporate to clean the try.