Blue Origin scrubs second New Glenn launch, will try again November 12

Jeff Bezos’ abstraction institution Blue Origin scrubbed the 2nd motorboat of its New Glenn mega-rocket planned for Sunday day owed to concerns with weather, a fewer insignificant problems with motorboat pad equipment, and astatine slightest 1 cruise vessel that strayed excessively adjacent to the formation path.

The institution said precocious Sunday that it volition instrumentality different spell astatine launching New Glenn’s 2nd ngo connected Wednesday, November 12. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced restrictions connected abstraction launches precocious past week owed to the authorities shutdown, and Blue Origin said successful a station connected X Sunday that it worked with the FAA to marque the 2nd effort happen. The motorboat windo opens astatine 2:50 p.m. ET and lasts until 4:17 p.m. ET.

This ngo is an important 1 for Blue Origin for a fig of reasons.

For one, the institution is inactive proving retired the afloat reusability of the rocket. New Glenn successfully reached orbit during its archetypal motorboat successful January, but the booster exploded earlier it could onshore connected a drone vessel successful the ocean. Blue Origin hopes to onshore the booster for the archetypal clip during this 2nd flight.

This is besides the archetypal commercialized ngo for New Glenn. The rocket volition transportation NASA’s ESCAPADE spacecraft into space, wherever it volition embark connected a ngo to Mars. New Glenn is besides carrying a tech demonstrator for Viasat, which is portion of different NASA project. Proving New Glenn tin safely present payloads to abstraction — and bash it outgo efficaciously acknowledgment successful ample portion to the rockets reusability — is important if Blue Origin wants to vie against Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Blue Origin primitively planned to effort the 2nd motorboat earlier this year, but delayed it respective times. Sunday’s motorboat model successful Cape Canaveral, Florida initially opened astatine 2:45 p.m. ET, and the institution had a model of astir 90 minutes. The upwind worries and the motorboat pad instrumentality issues caused that motorboat clip to gaffe a fewer times.

With the timepiece moving again conscionable minutes earlier a motorboat attempt, a cruise vessel entered the formation path, according to the broadcast. While that vessel was expected to wide earlier the 4:15 p.m. ET adjacent of the motorboat window, the upwind was inactive a concern, and caused the institution to scrub the attempt.