Blue Origin Delays Inaugural New Glenn Launch Amid Vehicle Subsystem Challenge

Update 3:20 a.m. EST (0820 UTC): The launch has been scrubbed by Blue Origin.

Blue Origin is gearing up to embark on a new era in rocketry by showcasing its inaugural orbital class rocket, New Glenn. Alongside this, they aim to recover the first stage booster utilizing a landing platform situated in the Atlantic Ocean.

The enterprise established by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos aimed for the first launch of New Glenn during a three-hour timeframe on Monday, January 13. However, launch teams encountered what they referred to as a “vehicle subsystem issue” that proved to be more time-consuming to potentially rectify than the timeframe allowed.

A fresh launch date was still being finalized as of 3:09 a.m. EST (0809 UTC). Once it launches, the rocket is set to take off from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and follow a slightly southeasterly flight path.



In a discussion with Aviation Week prior to the commencement of fueling on Sunday night, Bezos pondered the significance of the moment, labeling it “a very significant evening.”

“We’re ready. We cannot predict what will happen for certain. Attempting to land the booster on the first mission might be somewhat audacious and may not succeed. It would definitely be an added bonus,” stated Bezos.

“If it succeeds, I hope, we all hope, that we can successfully place the Blue Ring Pathfinder into the appropriate orbit. That would indicate success, but we’re also ready for any unforeseen issues to arise,” he elaborated. “If any anomalies occur at any point during the mission, we’ll regroup and continue.”

Adverse weather conditions in the section of the Atlantic Ocean designated for the booster, dubbed ‘So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance,’ thwarted launch attempts that were initially planned for Friday and then for Sunday morning. Nevertheless, the weather conditions were significantly more favorable leading into the Monday launch attempt, according to the 45th Weather Squadron.

“A high-pressure system will develop in the area today, with a disturbance moving into the region on Monday possibly increasing mid-level clouds over the Spaceport as early as Monday morning,” wrote the launch weather officers. “This disturbance may cause showers, breezy winds, and extensive cloud cover over the Spaceport late Monday into early Tuesday.”

If Blue Origin is unable to launch on Monday before initiating propellant loading onto the rocket, a backup opportunity on Tuesday faces a considerably less favorable forecast for launch. The outlook shifts from a 90 percent likelihood of favorable weather on Monday to merely 40 percent on Tuesday, affected by both cloud conditions and intensified winds at the launch site.

Meteorologists conveyed increased assurance regarding conditions in the booster recovery zone for both the primary and 24-hour backup launch opportunities.

“For recovery, significant sea heights are expected to decrease to around 5-6 feet for the primary window, and further reduce to approximately 4-5 ft for the backup window,” stated the forecast. “Winds are estimated to remain light, mitigating risks for offshore landing conditions during both primary and backup launch periods.”

The New Glenn-1 launch might be seen by observers in the regions below, given favorable weather. Here’s when and where to gaze at the skies! pic.twitter.com/du8wehNiRE

— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) January 11, 2025

“The most precarious aspect of the mission is the landing”

While not the primary aim of the NG-1 mission, one of the most challenging components will undoubtedly be Blue Origin’s endeavor to land its first stage booster, named ‘So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance,’ on the landing platform, dubbed ‘Jacklyn,’ in honor of Bezos’ mother.

This operation is designed to invoke comparisons to SpaceX and its Falcon 9 rockets, which conduct landings on droneships or landing platforms at both Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Space Force Base.

In a dialogue with Aviation Week, Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp mentioned that the difficulty of attempting to land on the first flight is compounded by the known unknowns of an initial flight that cannot be tested on the ground.

“It’s incredibly challenging to replicate the conditions, such as the hypersonic environment during reentry, so there are numerous events that must occur to ensure a successful landing that we simply need to fly to verify,” Limp noted. “That’s why landing it would be an additional advantage, but we would gain invaluable insights.”



The booster, approximately 57 meters in height (188 ft), is designed for a minimum of 25 missions, as per Blue Origin. The booster, also known as Glenn Stage 1 (GS1), is propelled by seven of the company’s BE-4 engines.

GS1 is powered by liquid natural gas and cryogenic oxygen. The combined thrust of all seven engines at liftoff reaches around 3.9 million pounds.

Shortly after three minutes into ascent, the booster aims to detach from the upper stage and utilize both forward module fins and the reaction control system to reorient toward the landing vessel.

Just over seven minutes into the flight, three of the seven BE-4 engines will reignite to perform a nearly 30-second reentry burn to decelerate the booster. A final landing burn will initiate right before the nine-minute benchmark with a touchdown expected approximately 9.5 minutes post-liftoff.

The rear module of the booster is equipped with six hydraulically-actuated legs that deploy moments prior to landing. Following touchdown, a device known as the Recovery Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) is deployed to connect with the booster.

Limp indicated in a post on X that the ROV “provides energy, communication, and pneumatic connections between the booster and the platform.” He added that the ROV is about

4.3-meters-tall (14 ft) and occupies the space of a Ford F-150 truck.

The landing timetable will only occur if everything proceeds as expected during the flight. The booster will redirect from the landing vessel if it detects any irregularities.

Bezos mentioned to Aviation Week on Sunday that while he views the booster landing as “the most perilous aspect of the mission,” even if the booster is compromised, Blue Origin is already well-prepared at their production facility on Merritt Island, located just outside the Kennedy Space Center gates.

“We have two boosters currently in production, alongside two more boosters. We’ve got, I don’t know, seven or eight second stages actively being assembled,” Bezos articulated. “Thus, we’ll be primed to launch again in the spring, regardless of the outcome.”

Preparing the groundwork

Apart from the landing endeavor, Blue Origin’s principal objective is to launch the New Glenn rocket successfully from pad LC-36 and ensure a nominal operation of its second stage, GS2, which is powered by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.

Concealed within the 7-meter-diameter (23 ft) payload fairings is the company’s Blue Ring Pathfinder. During the NG-1 mission, it will be fixed to the upper stage and tasked with “validating space to ground communication capabilities by sending commands, receiving telemetry, collecting and processing mission data, and executing radiometric tracking (for navigation).”

The GS2 accompanied by the Blue Ring Pathfinder will ascend into a highly elliptical orbit within the medium Earth orbit spectrum, featuring an apogee of 19,300 km and a perigee of 2,400 km at a 30-degree inclination.

The NG-1 mission provides Blue Origin a chance to gain deeper insights into its upper stage. Bezos characterized second stage ignition as merely one of the significant challenges during this maiden flight.

“As you are in a vacuum, achieving full power testing for an engine the size of BE-3U is not straightforward, so ignition presents real difficulties,” Bezos conveyed. “Even fairing separation has posed challenges. Likewise, stage separation is an aspect that cannot truly be tested on Earth. You can conduct certain subsystem tests and so forth, but among all we’re undertaking today, relighting the BE-4s in that reentry condition is arguably the most challenging aspect to verify.”

According to Bezos, the journey to profitability will partly rely on the flight executed tonight and partly on how swiftly they are able to return to the launch pad.

“I believe we can execute six to eight flights this year and we hope to escalate operations rapidly in 2026 after that,” Bezos remarked. “But I would prefer not to speculate on when it might actually achieve profitability.”