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

Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin canceled the second launch of its New Glenn mega-rocket planned for Sunday afternoon due to weather concerns, some minor problems with launch pad equipment and at least one cruise ship straying too close to the flight path.

The company said late Sunday that it would take another step toward launching New Glenn’s second mission on Wednesday, Nov. 12. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced a ban on space launches late last week due to the government shutdown, and Blue Origin said in a post on Sunday that it worked with the FAA to make a second attempt. The launch window opens at 2:50 pm ET and runs until 4:17 pm ET.

This mission is important to Blue Origin for several reasons.

For one, the company is still proving the rocket’s full reusability. The New Glenn successfully reached orbit during its first launch in January, but the booster exploded before landing on the drone ship in the ocean. Blue Origin hopes to land a booster for the first time during this second flight.

This is also New Glenn’s first commercial mission. The rocket will carry NASA’s ESCAPADE spacecraft into space, where it will begin a mission to Mars. New Glenn is also carrying a technology demonstrator for ViaSat, which is part of another NASA project. If Blue Origin wants to compete against Elon Musk’s SpaceX it is vital to prove that New Glenn can safely deliver payloads to space – and that it is cost-effective, in large part thanks to the reusability of the rocket.

Blue Origin originally planned to attempt a second launch earlier this year, but it was delayed several times. Sunday’s launch window in Cape Canaveral, Florida initially opened at 2:45 a.m. ET, and the company had about a 90-minute window. The launch time was reduced several times due to weather concerns and launch pad equipment problems.

According to the broadcast, with the clock running again a few minutes before the launch attempt, a cruise ship entered the flight path. While that ship was expected to clear before the launch window closed at 4:15 p.m. ET, the weather was still a concern, and caused the company to abort the attempt.