Blue Origin will make another attempt to launch its enormous new rocket, potentially as soon as Thursday, after a delay due to ice accumulation in a critical plumbing system, reports AP.
The 320-foot (98-meter) New Glenn rocket was scheduled to lift off before dawn on Monday with a prototype satellite on board. However, ice formed in a purge line that powers part of the rocket’s hydraulic systems, and launch controllers were unable to clear it in time, according to the company.
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Founded by Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Blue Origin further postponed the launch due to poor weather predictions for Cape Canaveral on Tuesday and a SpaceX moonshot scheduled for Wednesday. The test flight had already been delayed due to rough seas that posed a risk to the plan of landing the rocket’s first-stage booster on a floating platform in the Atlantic.
The New Glenn is named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth. At five times the height of Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket, it is designed to take paying customers to the edge of space from Texas.
Bezos, who founded Blue Origin 25 years ago, participated in the Monday countdown from Mission Control, located near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
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No matter the outcome, Bezos said over the weekend, “We’re going to pick ourselves up and keep going.”