Blue Origin, the American space technology company founded by Jeff Bezos, executive chairman of Amazon, announced the last-minute cancellation of its first rocket launch due to technical issues.
Blue Origin cancels its rocket launch
Blue Origin's rocket was scheduled to take off on Monday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The 98-meter rocket was carrying an experimental satellite, but during the final countdown, the control team encountered a technical issue, leading to the last-minute cancellation of the launch.
“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. Our key objective today is to reach orbit safely. Anything beyond that is icing on the cake. We know landing the booster on our first try offshore in the Atlantic is ambitious—but we’re going for it. No matter what happens, we’ll learn, refine, and apply that knowledge to our next launch,” Blue Origin stated.
Blue Origin explained that ice in the rocket's purge line caused an issue, leading the company to postpone the launch of its New Glenn rocket. Subsequently, bad weather forecasts prompted the company to delay the launch further.
“We’re moving our NG-1 launch to no earlier than Thursday, January 16. The three-hour launch window opens at 1 a.m. EST (0600 UTC),” Blue Origin added.
