Blue Origin set and reset its countdown clock starting at 1 a.m. Monday morning for its New Glenn rocket, but ultimately scrubbed the maiden voyage of the craft.
Just after 3 a.m., launch officials reported that "attempts to troubleshoot a vehicle subsystem issue" made it impossible to launch within the three-hour window that would have ended at 4 a.m. That was the extent of the explanation of what issues caused the eventual scrub.
Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket, the brainchild of Amazon owner Jeff Bezos, the attempt to get into the rocket business and compete with SpaceX and United Launch Alliance, was originally set to launch Monday at 1 a.m. after a planned launch early Sunday was scrubbed due to high ocean waves around its planned return site. The countdown clock reached T-minus 13 to 15 minutes a number of times before time was added as crews worked through the rocket's checklist. Bezos was present at Mission Control Monday.
In announcing the scrub, launch officials said it was, "Reviewing opportunities for our next launch attempt" from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex 36.
The plan for the Mission NG-1 for the 321-foot tall rocket is to take hardware for Blue Ring, a satellite foundation for transporting future customer payloads to orbit.
Blue Origin was clear about the objectives of this launch, admitting that it's the first flight for this payload.
"We’ve prepared rigorously for it. But no amount of ground testing or mission simulations is a replacement for flying this rocket," a social media post from 12:36 a.m. read. "Our key objective today is to reach orbit safely. Anything beyond that is icing on the cake. We know landing the booster on our first try offshore in the Atlantic is ambitious—but we’re going for it. No matter what happens, we’ll learn, refine, and apply that knowledge to our next launch."
Thus far, Blue Origin crafts have only launched from near Van Horn in west Texas.
