Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket launch flops in failed challenge to Elon Musk's SpaceX
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Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket was due launch orbit for the first time today - but the launch was cancelled after several delays. Jeff Bezos' rocket was set to take off from Cape Canaveral in Florida in the early hours of Monday morning, in what has been seen as a challenge to Elon Musk's company, SpaceX. However, following several delays to the launch time as safety and weather checks were being carried out, the mission was cancelled.
Blue Origin said it needed more time to "troubleshoot a vehicle subsystem issue" that would take them beyond their launch window. A new date will be set, Blue Origin said, urging people to follow their social media channels to know when that will be. A spokeswoman for the company explained on the launch livestream: "When we know when the next opportunity is of course we will let everybody know." She added the launch team will not "detank" the vehicle and then "assess what other things we might want to get done in our downtime and that is what's going to guide when the next launch opportunity will be.".
The aerospace engineering company wrote on X, formerly called Twitter: "We're standing down on today's launch attempt to troubleshoot a vehicle subsystem issue that will take us beyond our launch window. We're reviewing opportunities for our next launch attempt.".
This was set to be the rocket's first flight, with Blue Origin saying it had "prepared rigorously" for it. The company had tweeted: "We want to be clear about our objectives. This is our first flight and we've prepared rigorously for it. But no amount of ground testing or mission simulations is a replacement for flying this rocket.
