Blue Origin canceled the first launch of the New Glenn heavy rocket minutes before launch

Blue Origin has once again postponed the first launch of its new heavy-duty launch vehicle, New Glenn. The launch was supposed to take place today at 11:15 Moscow time (initially at 10:48), but a few minutes before the launch, the launch was canceled due to some problem with one of the rocket subsystems, which could not be quickly resolved.

Image source: Blue Origin

«We are canceling today’s launch attempt to resolve a vehicle subsystem issue that will take us outside of our launch window. We are considering options for our next launch attempt,” Blue Origin commented on the situation on social network X.

The main goal of the NG-1 debut mission was to launch the second stage of the rocket into orbit. The role of the payload is performed by the Blue Ring Pathfinder. An additional task was to land the reusable first stage on a barge in the ocean. However, even Blue Orogin founder Jeff Bezos doubted the success of the latest event. The rocket was scheduled to take off from Launch Complex 36 at the US Space Force Station at Cape Canaveral.

The 98 m tall New Glenn rocket is usually compared with the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle of its direct competitor, SpaceX. The Blue Origin rocket is capable of delivering 45 tons of payload into low-Earth orbit, while the Falcon Heavy is designed to carry 64 tons. Like the SpaceX Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, the New Glenn first stage is designed to be reusable.

New Glenn uses Blue Origin’s own BE-4 liquid rocket engines, which have already been used to propel ULA’s Vulcan rocket into space. The first stage of the new rocket has seven such engines. The second stage also uses proprietary liquid fuel engines, but BE-3U, optimized for operation in vacuum.