Blue Origin cancels second New Glenn launch due to weather and cruise ship traffic

Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin canceled the second launch of its New Glenn megarocket scheduled for Sunday afternoon, citing weather concerns, some minor problems with launch pad equipment and at least one cruise ship coming too close to the flight path.

It was not immediately clear when the company would try again to launch a second New Glenn mission. Late last week, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced restrictions on space launches in response to the government shutdown. On Nov. 7, Blue Origin posted on X that it was working with the FAA to ensure Sunday’s launch. After Sunday’s canceled launch, the company said it was “evaluating future launch opportunities based on expected weather conditions.”

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

First, the company is still proving the rocket’s full reusability. New Glenn successfully reached orbit on its first launch in January, but its booster exploded before landing on a drone ship at sea. Blue Origin hopes to land the booster for the first time during this second flight.

This is also New Glenn’s first commercial mission. The rocket will carry NASA’s ESCAPADE spacecraft into space, where it will embark on a mission to Mars. New Glenn also carries a Viasat technology demonstrator that is part of another NASA project. If Blue Origin wants to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, it will be crucial that New Glenn proves it can transport payloads into space safely and cost-effectively thanks to the rocket’s reusability.

Blue Origin was originally scheduled to attempt a second launch earlier this year, but it was postponed several times. Sunday’s launch period in Cape Canaveral, Florida, originally began at 2:45 p.m. local time, giving the company a roughly 90-minute launch period. The launch time was shifted several times due to weather concerns and problems with the launch pad equipment.

Minutes before the launch attempt, the clocks started running again and the cruise ship entered the flight path, according to the broadcast. The ship was expected to make it by the time the launch slot closed at 4:15 p.m., but weather remained a concern and the company called off the attempt.