Scheduled for Sunday, the inaugural flight of New Glenn, Blue Origin’s large rocket, from the Cape Canaveral base in Florida (southeast United States) is postponed due to maritime conditions.
• Also read: Jeff Bezos’ New Glenn rocket will take off on Friday at the earliest, his space company says
“Maritime conditions are still unfavorable for landing the thruster [booster]» on a barge in the Atlantic, the company said in X on Saturday.
Another launch window is scheduled for Monday at 1 a.m.
After years of design and multiple postponements, the first flight of New Glenn, a 98 meter high rocket, the size of a building of approximately 30 floors, is supposed to constitute a turning point for the company founded by the American billionaire Jeff Bezos, and potentially for the private space industry.
AFP
The objective of this launch is to “reach orbit. Anything beyond that is a bonus,” said David Limp, CEO of Blue Origin.
If the company of the founder of Amazon has already been taking tourists for a few minutes into space for years thanks to its smaller New Shepard rocket, it has so far not carried out any flight into orbit.
With New Glenn, larger and more powerful, Blue Origin aims to catch up with its great rival SpaceX, which belongs to another American billionaire, Elon Musk.
The Tesla boss’s company has dominated the commercial space market for years with its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, and is now developing the largest rocket ever created: Starship.
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