Blue Origin Cancels Inaugural Launch of Huge New Rocket Just Before Liftoff

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Blue Origin called off the debut launch of its massive new rocket early Monday because of technical trouble.

The 320-foot (98-meter) New Glenn rocket was scheduled to launch before dawn with a prototype satellite from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. However, a last-minute rocket issue arose during the countdown, forcing launch controllers to stop the process due to running out of time. Subsequently, all the fuel was drained from the rocket once the countdown clock was paused.

Blue Origin did not immediately set a new launch date, saying the team needed more time to resolve the problem.

The test flight had already faced delays caused by rough seas, which posed a threat to the company’s plans to land the first-stage booster on a floating platform in the Atlantic.

New Glenn, named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, stands five times taller than Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, which transports paying customers to the edge of space from Texas.

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos founded the company 25 years ago. He took part in Monday’s countdown from Mission Control, located at the rocket factory just outside the gates of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Orlando, Florida.

No matter what happens, Bezos said Sunday evening, “we’re going to pick ourselves up and keep going.”