Blue Origin Cancels Rocket Launch Because of ‘Vehicle Subsystem Issue’

• Blue Origin was set to launch its New Glenn rocket on Monday morning.
• But the launch was postponed due to a “vehicle subsystem issue,” Blue Origin said.
• “We’re reviewing opportunities for our next launch attempt,” the company said.

Rocket company Blue Origin postponed its highly anticipated New Glenn rocket launch on Monday morning, citing a need to “troubleshoot a vehicle subsystem issue.”

The launch, originally scheduled for a three-hour window from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. Eastern Time, was repeatedly delayed before it was ultimately postponed.

“We’re standing down on today’s launch attempt to troubleshoot a vehicle subsystem issue that will take us beyond our launch window,” Blue Origin wrote in an X post. “We’re reviewing opportunities for our next launch attempt.”

Ahead of the launch, Blue Origin’s leadership — including its founder, Jeff Bezos — awaited the rocket’s blastoff at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

A liftoff time of 1:31 a.m. was first set at the beginning of the launch’s livestream. It was then delayed from 1:52 a.m. to 2:07 a.m., 2:27 a.m., 2:48 a.m., and finally, 3:15 a.m.

Before it was postponed, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had wished Blue Origin well for the launch. SpaceX remains the only company to have recovered and reused a rocket’s booster stages.

Ahead of the initial launch time, Blue Origin said on X that the company hoped to “reach orbit safely.”

“Anything beyond that is icing on the cake. We know landing the booster on our first try offshore in the Atlantic is ambitious—but we’re going for it,” the company wrote on X early Monday morning. “No matter what happens, we’ll learn, refine, and apply that knowledge to our next launch.”

A successful launch would have greatly boosted Bezos’ spacefaring ambitions for Blue Origin.

Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000. The billionaire told podcaster Lex Fridman in a 2023 interview that he stepped down as Amazon’s CEO in 2021 because he wanted to focus on Blue Origin.

“I’ve turned the CEO role over, and the primary reason I did that is so that I could spend time on Blue Origin, adding some energy, some sense of urgency,” Bezos told Fridman.

Representatives for Blue Origin did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.