Bezos’ Blue Origin stands down on debut launch of New Glenn rocket

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin on Monday called off the inaugural launch of its New Glenn rocket following last-minute issues on the vehicle, in a blow to its bid to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the satellite space.

The launch was slated to take place out of Cape Canaveral in Florida as of 1 a.m. ET.

“We’re standing down on today’s launch attempt to troubleshoot a vehicle subsystem issue that will take us beyond our launch window,” the company said on the X social media platform.

Blue Origin said it was reviewing opportunities for the next launch attempt.

Standing at 320 feet tall, the partially reusable New Glenn rocket faced delays to its liftoff time before the final decision to call off its launch.

“As part of the long-term vision, we really need to protect this planet. And the role of space technologies.” said Ariane Cornell, Blue Origin vice president of in-space systems, during a livestream of the intended take-off. “That’s also why we started with reusable rockets and reusable engines.”

This breaking news story is being updated.