Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin stands down on its much-hyped New Glenn rocket launch, citing 'vehicle subsystem issue'
Blue Origin Media
- Blue Origin was set to launch its New Glenn rocket on Monday morning.
- The launch was postponed because of a "vehicle subsystem issue," Blue Origin said.
- "We're reviewing opportunities for our next launch attempt," the company said.
The rocket company Blue Origin postponed its highly anticipated New Glenn rocket launch Monday morning, citing a need to "troubleshoot a vehicle subsystem issue."
The launch, originally scheduled for a three-hour window from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. ET, was repeatedly delayed before it was ultimately postponed.
"We're standing down on today's launch attempt to troubleshoot a vehicle subsystem issue that will take us beyond our launch window," Blue Origin wrote in an X post. "We're reviewing opportunities for our next launch attempt."
Ahead of the scheduled launch, Blue Origin's leadership — including its founder, Jeff Bezos — awaited the rocket's blastoff at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
A liftoff time of 1:31 a.m. was first set at the beginning of the launch's livestream. It was then delayed from 1:52 a.m. to 2:07 a.m., 2:27 a.m., 2:48 a.m., and finally, 3:15 a.m.
At press time, Blue Origin had not confirmed a new launch date.
Before the launch was postponed, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had wished Blue Origin well. SpaceX remains the only company to have recovered and reused a rocket's booster stages.
Good luck!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 13, 2025
Ahead of the initially scheduled launch time, Blue Origin said on X that the company hoped to have the New Glenn "reach orbit safely."
"Anything beyond that is icing on the cake. We know landing the booster on our first try offshore in the Atlantic is ambitious—but we're going for it," the company wrote on X early Monday morning. "No matter what happens, we'll learn, refine, and apply that knowledge to our next launch."
A successful launch would have greatly boosted Bezos' spacefaring ambitions for Blue Origin.
Besides the New Glenn rocket, Blue Origin has developed other space vehicles, including the New Shepard.
But one of New Shepard's uncrewed missions failed on September 12, 2022, when Blue Origin lost a first-stage booster about a minute into the flight.
That resulted in the New Shepard getting grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration. Blue Origin had to take 21 corrective actions, including redesigning some components, before the New Shepard could fly again.
Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000. The billionaire told the podcaster Lex Fridman in a 2023 interview that he stepped down as Amazon's CEO in 2021 because he wanted to focus on Blue Origin.
"I've turned the CEO role over, and the primary reason I did that is so that I could spend time on Blue Origin, adding some energy, some sense of urgency," Bezos told Fridman.
Representatives for Blue Origin did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.