Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture is heading back to the launch pad again on Dec. 19 to send its New Shepard rocket ship on an uncrewed space mission for the first time in 15 months.
The first launch attempt ended today with a postponement, due to a ground system issue that needed troubleshooting at Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in West Texas.
The second attempt is scheduled for no earlier than 10:37 a.m. CT (8:37 a.m. PT), depending on weather and technical readiness. Blue Origin will provide streaming video coverage of the countdown, launch and landing via its website starting at T-minus-20 minutes.
This mission, known as NS24, will send 33 science payloads to the edge of space and back, providing a few minutes of zero gravity for research purposes. It’s essentially a do-over for a flight in September 2022 that ended prematurely due to a malfunction of the New Shepard booster’s hydrogen-fueled rocket engine.
