Bezos’ space company cancels first launch of new rocket in final minutes of countdown

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Blue Origin will try again to launch its massive new rocket as early as Thursday after canceling the first launch due to ice buildup in critical plumbing.

The 98-meter New Glenn rocket was scheduled to lift off before dawn Monday with a prototype satellite. But ice formed in a purge line of a unit powering some of the rocket’s hydraulic systems and launch controllers did not have time to clear it, according to the company.

Founded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin further delayed the launch due to Tuesday’s poor weather forecast for Cape Canaveral and a moonshot planned for Wednesday by SpaceX. The test flight had already been postponed due to rough seas that posed a risk to Blue Origin’s plan to land the first stage booster on a floating platform in the Atlantic.

New Glenn is named after the first American to orbit the Earth, John Glenn. It’s five times taller than Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, which carries paying customers to the edge of space from Texas.

Bezos started the company 25 years ago. He participated in Monday’s countdown from Mission Control, located in the rocket factory just outside the gates of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

Whatever happens, Bezos said over the weekend, “We’re going to pick ourselves up and keep going.” »

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