Blue Origin will try again to launch the New Glenn heavy rocket on January 16

The aerospace company Blue Origin planned to carry out the first launch of its New Glenn heavy launch vehicle on January 13, but a few minutes before the launch, the launch was canceled due to problems with one of the launch vehicle’s subsystems. It was later announced that a second launch attempt would take place on January 14 at 01:00 Pacific time (09:00 Moscow time), but a few hours later it became known that the mission had been postponed to Thursday.

Image source: Blue Origin

Blue Origin did not immediately disclose details about the reasons for postponing the New Glenn launch by several days. It was assumed that the decision was due to the impossibility of quickly eliminating the consequences of a technical failure, due to which the launch was canceled the first time. It was also possible that the new date was chosen to ensure optimal weather conditions.

The company later confirmed that the launch of the New Glenn rocket was canceled due to the formation of ice in the ventilation system. “The launch was canceled this morning due to ice formation in the auxiliary power unit purge circuit, which powers some of the hydraulic systems,” a Blue Origin spokesperson said.

After the launch was cancelled, the company’s engineers planned to prepare the rocket for another launch attempt on Tuesday night. However, due to adverse weather conditions in the area of ​​the US Space Force base at Cape Canaveral in Florida, it was decided to postpone the launch. A new attempt to launch the New Glenn rocket is scheduled for January 16 between 01:00 and 04:00 local time.