Blue Origin is still deciding when to attempt another launch of its mega-rocket from the Space Coast after a dramatic countdown early Monday morning ended in a scrub.
The commercial space company, owned by Jeff Bezos, the world’s second-richest person, cited a last-minute issue with the rocket, one of the largest ever built.
Spectators gathered on the beach early this morning, puzzled by the repeated countdown restarts throughout the three-hour launch window.
Keep in mind that Blue Origin is a private company funding the launch entirely on its own, allowing it to proceed at its own pace without having to publicly share details on progress.
And launching a new rocket of this size is highly complex.
The New Glenn rocket’s engines use Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) instead of conventional fuel, which requires chilling the gas to minus 270 degrees Fahrenheit for liquefaction.
Everything, from the hardware to the onboard software and mission control computers, is newly built from scratch.
With a new system, testing on the ground only goes so far, Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp told News 6 Space Coast correspondent James Sparvero.
“It’s space, it’s hard, otherwise everyone would be doing it,” Limp said. “But I do feel like we’ve tested this vehicle, we did our hot fire a couple weeks ago, we’ve run simulations, and the team has been working on this for a long time, so I feel confident in the vehicle. Obviously, there’s a lot of things for it to go right to have to make this happen, but I’d say I’m very confident of getting to orbit.”
Monday morning’s countdown repeatedly reset at T-minus 10 minutes, a critical phase involving multiple tasks like switching power from the pad to the rocket and initiating the launch sequencer.
The FAA posted another launch window Tuesday morning starting at 1 a.m. but Blue Origin has not announced if it will proceed.
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