Blue Origin scrubs second launch of New Glenn due to weather, cruise ship traffic

Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin scrubbed the second launch of its New Glenn mega-rocket planned for Sunday afternoon due to concerns with weather, a few minor problems with launch pad equipment, and at least one cruise ship that strayed too close to the flight path.

It’s not immediately clear when the company will get another go at launching New Glenn’s second mission. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced restrictions on space launches late last week due to the government shutdown. On November 7, Blue Origin posted on X that the company was working with the FAA to make sure Sunday’s launch could happen. After the launch scrub Sunday, the company said it is “reviewing opportunities for our next launch attempt based on forecasted weather.”

This mission is an important one for Blue Origin for a number of reasons.

For one, the company is still proving out the full reusability of the rocket. New Glenn successfully reached orbit during its first launch in January, but the booster exploded before it could land on a drone ship in the ocean. Blue Origin hopes to land the booster for the first time during this second flight.

This is also the first commercial mission for New Glenn. The rocket will carry NASA’s ESCAPADE spacecraft into space, where it will embark on a mission to Mars. New Glenn is also carrying a tech demonstrator for Viasat, which is part of another NASA project. Proving New Glenn can safely deliver payloads to space — and do it cost effectively thanks in large part to the rockets reusability — is crucial if Blue Origin wants to compete against Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Blue Origin originally planned to attempt the second launch earlier this year, but delayed it several times. Sunday’s launch window in Cape Canaveral, Florida initially opened at 2:45 p.m. local time, and the company had a window of roughly 90 minutes. The weather worries and the launch pad equipment issues caused that launch time to slip a few times.

With the clock running again just minutes before a launch attempt, a cruise ship entered the flight path, according to the broadcast. While that ship was expected to clear before the 4:15 p.m. close of the launch window, the weather was still a concern, and caused the company to scrub the attempt.