Monday and Tuesday morning, Blue Origin made two attempts to launch its New Glenn rocket on its inaugural mission. However, neither ended with the rocket leaving the launch pad, so why did they scrub?
First off, delays for first rockets should be expected. For those that might have made the trek out to Florida to see the launch, remember the #1 rule of launch viewing: you are going to attempt to see a rocket launch. As teams learn the ins and outs of their new rocket, find faults that didn’t show up in previous tests, and overall just do things for the first time, things will obviously require longer delays.
Throw in that Blue Origin’s launch site is sticking out in the middle of an ocean, bringing not-so-perfect weather many days out of the year; scrubs happen. That’s okay, we’d rather see a scrub (delay) delay a mission rather than a RUD (rapid unscheduled disassembly, AKA explosion) stop the mission from reaching its milestones.
Launch attempt #1 – technical problems
The scrub that we’re likely all thinking about was early Monday morning. Blue Origin announced its three-hour launch window would open at 1:00 A.M. ET, and their live coverage would begin an hour before. The launch was already delayed at the start when launch coverage didn’t begin until 12:30 A.M. ET.
According to the hosts, the rocket seemed healthy and everything was going fine up until the T-15 minute point when the clock reverted to T-40 minutes. This took place another four more times throughout the count with little to no information given as to what was causing the issue.
Eventually, just past 3:00 A.M. ET, Blue Origin officially scrubbed the launch attempt, sharing that a “vehicle subsystem” was to blame and they wouldn’t be able to fix it before the end of the window. Later, we learned the system in question was a purge line from an auxiliary power unit that was getting blocked with ice.
Launch attempt #3 – weather
With that issue believed to now be solved, Blue Origin began operations to attempt a second launch. Using the same launch window as before, teams began the work of loading the large rocket with its liquid methane, hydrogen, and oxygen.
One issue was clearing well ahead of the launch announcement: the weather. Space Launch Delta 45 provides public launch weather reports for each mission on the Eastern Range. New Glenn’s report showed a 70% chance of violation of any of Blue Origin’s launch commit criteria.
After some rumors of a launch at the end of the window, Blue Origin shared that it would no longer attempt a launch that evening and would move to the next possible launch date, January 16.
The reason why Blue Origin cannot launch this evening/early morning is that SpaceX already has the range booked for a Falcon 9 launch. On board will be Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services contract and i-space’s Hakuto-R lunar lander. Given Blue Ghost’s mission is for NASA and Blue Origin does not have a mission criteria for launching on Wednesday, SpaceX will take priority.
Does Blue Origin have a better chance?
When launching a brand-new rocket, each delay for a technical problem that is then fixed gives the company a better chance of success for the next attempt. Blue Origin will get New Glenn launched; it will just take time to get it all right.
The goal for Blue Origin’s first New Glenn rocket is reaching orbit. Although any flight data will be a win, the company has set the bar at orbit. Anything past that moment, the success of the Blue Ring Pathfinder payload, landing the booster at sea, and any other flight post-orbit would just be a bonus.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
