UPDATE: Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture says it’s delaying the first-ever launch of its orbital-class New Glenn rocket due to unfavorable weather conditions for landing the first-stage booster.
Liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex 36 in Florida had been scheduled for no earlier than 1 a.m. ET Jan. 10 (10 p.m. PT tonight). But in an update posted to the X social-media platform, Blue Origin said the attempt has been rescheduled for a three-hour launch window that opens at 1 a.m. ET Jan. 12 (10 p.m. PT Jan. 11).
The schedule shift was made “due to a high sea state in the Atlantic where we hope to land our booster,” Blue Origin said. Video coverage of the countdown is expected to be streamed via BlueOrigin.com starting about an hour before liftoff.
New Glenn, which is named after the late pioneer astronaut John Glenn, is due to launch Blue Origin’s Blue Ring Pathfinder, a payload that’s designed to test the communications, power and control systems for the company’s Blue Ring multi-use space platform. The test flight is part of a prototyping effort for orbital logistics that’s supported by the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit.
Blue Origin has been working on the development of New Glenn for more than a decade — and mission controllers are likely to be monitoring the performance of the two-stage rocket at least as closely as they’ll be monitoring the payload.
