Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket launch was called off due to technical issues just minutes before liftoff at Cape Canaveral
The rocket, which is a whopping 320 feet tall, was all set to launch before dawn. But then, launch controllers noticed some “anomalies” and had to cancel it after a few countdown resets.
They were aiming for a 6:31 AM UK time lift-off, but after a few delays, it got pushed to 8:15 AM. Then, just when everyone was getting excited, they had to call it off.
Once the countdown stopped, the team quickly started draining the fuel from the rocket. This test flight had already faced delays due to rough seas that could mess up their plans to land the booster on a floating platform in the Atlantic.
Blue Origin didn’t go into detail about what went wrong, but they mentioned they were troubleshooting a vehicle subsystem issue. A spokesperson said they found “a few anomalies” and were working through them.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin, said they’ll keep trying no matter what. Even with the setbacks, the team was hopeful about the weather and sea conditions.
As for when they’ll try to launch again, that’s still up in the air. They need more time to sort out the issues. By the way, New Glenn is named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth. It’s five times taller than their New Shepard rocket, which takes people to the edge of space from Texas. Bezos has been involved in the countdown from Mission Control, which is pretty close to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
