On Monday, January 13th, Blue Origin, the space company founded by Jeff Bezos, the founder and current chairman of the American internet giant Amazon, canceled the launch of the “New Glenn” rocket due to “some anomalies” that occurred during the countdown, postponing its first attempt to enter orbit by at least a day.
This marks the inaugural orbital flight of Blue Origin’s new rocket program, as the company aims to challenge SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, for dominance in the orbital launch market and reshape the landscape of commercial space competition.
The reusable “New Glenn” rocket stands at 98 meters tall, roughly equivalent to a 32-story building. Originally scheduled to launch at 1 a.m. Eastern Time on Monday (0600 GMT) from Blue Origin’s launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida after being loaded with methane and liquid oxygen propellants.
During the later stages of the countdown, Blue Origin delayed the liftoff multiple times until 4 a.m., nearing the end of the “New Glenn” launch window. A company spokesperson, through a live broadcast, mentioned that the mission team was investigating “some anomalies.”
In a statement, Blue Origin mentioned, “We have decided to forgo the launch attempt today to address a subsystem issue, missing the launch window. We are evaluating the opportunity for the next launch attempt.”
The delay could potentially last at least 24 hours, but considering the obstacles being examined for this high-risk, mission-critical task, the delay might extend further.
This project, taking a decade to develop and costing billions of dollars, holds the goal of having the rocket’s second stage continue into orbit while attempting to land the “New Glenn”‘s first stage booster on a sea barge in the Atlantic Ocean ten minutes after liftoff.
Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000.
In an interview with Reuters before the launch, he expressed concerns about the booster landing, stating, “What we’re most worried about is the booster landing. Obviously, in a first flight, any launch phase can go wrong, so anything can happen.”
The payload fairing of the “New Glenn” carries a prototype spacecraft named “Blue Ring,” designed by Blue Origin, which is a maneuverable spacecraft intended for sale to Pentagon and commercial customers for national security and satellite service missions.
For space companies, sending a spacecraft into the intended orbit via the maiden rocket launch would be a remarkable achievement.
Bezos stated, “If we can pull this off, it would be a huge success, and the booster landing would be icing on the cake.”
The development of “New Glenn” has seen three CEOs at Blue Origin and faced multiple delays. Meanwhile, SpaceX, led by Musk, has become an industry giant with its reusable “Falcon 9” rocket, the most active rocket in the world.
At the end of 2023, Bezos took steps to accelerate Blue Origin’s development, prioritizing the development of “New Glenn” and its BE-4 engine. He appointed Amazon veteran Dave Limp as CEO, bringing a sense of urgency to compete directly with SpaceX, as employees noted.
The power of “New Glenn” is over twice that of SpaceX’s “Falcon 9” rocket, and it has secured dozens of customer launch contracts worth billions of dollars.
(This article is sourced from Reuters.)