Jeff Bezos' space tourism company Blue Origin canceled the first launch of its massive new rocket early Monday, citing technical problems.
The two-stage, 320-foot-long reusable New Glenn rocket will lift off from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida during a three-hour window starting at 1 a.m. ET Monday. It was planned.
However, launch controllers had to deal with an unspecified rocket issue during the final minutes of the countdown and were running out of time.
As soon as the countdown clock stopped, we began draining all the fuel from the rocket.
AP report Test flights had already been delayed by rough seas, posing risks to the company's plans to land the first stage booster on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean.
New Glenn honors legendary astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962.
It follows in the footsteps of Blue Origin's first rocket, New Shepard, named after Alan Shepard, the first American to go into space.
That's five times as tall as Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket, which carries paying customers from Texas to the edge of space.
New Glenn is classified as a “heavy lift launcher” and is capable of putting a significant payload into low Earth orbit. It is expected to carry up to 45 tons into orbit.
Blue Origin did not immediately set a new release date, saying the team needed more time to iron out the issues.
