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Journalism of Courage
New Glenn, the powerful orbital rocket built by Blue Origin, the space company founded by Jeff Bezos, is on a launchpad in Florida. When the skies did not clear, it stayed on the ground.
The tentative launch time, initially set for 2:45 p.m., was pushed back several times. At the end of the 88-minute launch window, mission managers called off the launch.
That means NASA’s ESCAPADE mission — two identical spacecraft that will orbit Mars to measure the dynamics of that planet’s magnetic field and atmosphere — will have to wait for another day to start their journey.
The company said in a post on the social platform X on Sunday night that it will next try to launch no earlier than Wednesday at 2:50 p.m.
Blue Origin seemed to have obtained an exemption from a Federal Aviation Administration announcement that starting Monday, no commercial rockets can lift off between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. local time. That is part of an attempt to relieve congestion in the nation’s airspace during the ongoing federal government shutdown.
“We worked with the FAA and range to select a launch window,” the post said.
At 321 feet tall, New Glenn is a giant. It is taller than the Falcon 9 rockets regularly flown by SpaceX, but shorter than the Starship vehicle the company is testing in Texas.
The rocket is named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth.
Its payload nose cone, at 7 meters wide, offers at least twice as much space for payloads as other rockets currently in operation.
The booster stage — the lower part of the rocket that lifts off the ground and carries the upper stage through the densest part of the atmosphere — is designed to land and to be reused.
