Kent-based Blue Origin called off its scheduled first launch of the unmanned New Glenn rocket spaceflight on Monday, Jan. 13 at Cape Canaveral in Florida but will try again Tuesday morning, Jan. 14.
“Tonight’s poor weather forecast at LC-36 (Launch Complex) could result in missing this window,” according to a Jan. 13 Blue Origin email. “This morning’s (Jan. 13) scrub was due to ice forming in a purge line on an auxiliary power unit that powers some of our hydraulic systems.”
The company had a three-hour launch early Monday morning and will have a similar window early Tuesday. Blue Origin said its key objective was to reach orbit safely.
Blue Origin successfully completed an integrated launch vehicle hotfire test in late December, the final major milestone on the company’s road to first flight for New Glenn. The company successfully rolled out and upended New Glenn for the first time Feb. 21. 2024 at Launch Complex 36 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Brevard County, Florida.
“This milestone represents the first view of the advanced heavy-lift vehicle, which will support a multitude of customer missions and Blue Origin programs, including returning to the moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program,” according to a Blue Origin media release last year.
New Glenn is named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth. The rocket stands more than 320 feet (98 meters) high—roughly the height of a 30-story building—and features a seven-meter payload fairing, enabling twice the volume of standard five-meter class commercial launch systems.
According to Blue Origin, the fairing is large enough to hold three school buses. Its reusable first stage aims for a minimum of 25 missions and will land on a sea-based platform located roughly 620 miles (1,000 km) downrange. Reusability is integral to radically reducing cost-per-launch.
The vehicle is powered by seven of Blue Origin’s BE-4 engines, the most powerful liquid oxygen (LOX) / liquefied natural gas (LNG) engine developed since Saturn V’s F1 engines, according to Blue Origin. LNG is cleaner-burning and higher-performing than kerosene-based fuels.
Blue Origin has several New Glenn vehicles in production and a full customer manifest. Customers include NASA, Project Kuiper, Telesat and Eutelsat, among others. Blue Origin is certifying New Glenn with the U.S. Space Force for the National Security Space Launch program to meet emerging national security objectives.
Amazon selected Blue Origin in 2022 as one of three companies to provide rockets to launch its Project Kuiper internet satellites. Amazon signed Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket for 12 launches with options up to 15 additional launches, according to Blue Origin.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also is the founder of Blue Origin, which opened in Kent in 2000. The companies are operated separately.
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