Blue Origin scrubs return of New Shepard rocket flight due to technical issue

Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Blue Origin has scrubbed its first flight since last year's uncrewed booster mishap. Monday's launch in West Texas was called off earlier in the day, first for cold weather and then due to an unspecified "ground system issue."

"We're scrubbing #NS24 today due to a ground system issue the team is troubleshooting. We'll provide a new launch target for this week soon," Blue Origin revealed Monday in a post on its website.

Several hours later, it was announced that Mission NS-24 -- which will carry 33 science and research payloads as well as 38,000 Club for the Future foundation postcards -- had been rescheduled for Tuesday.

"Our next #NS24 launch window opens tomorrow, Dec. 19, at 10:37 a.m. CST. Webcast starts T-20 minutes to launch on BlueOrigin.com," the company stated.

Blue Origin and its billionaire founder, Jeff Bezos, are working to return the New Shepard suborbital rocket to flight for the first time this month following an unmanned booster failure in September 2022. The mid-launch mishap caused an emergency abort system to separate the capsule from the booster.

On the live broadcast of the launch, from nearly 15 months ago, flames could be seen shooting from the booster before the parachute system was deployed and the capsule drifted to a soft landing.

The Federal Aviation Administration, which oversaw the mission's investigation, found that the "structural failure of an engine nozzle was caused by higher than expected engine operating temperatures." Earlier this year, the FAA ordered Blue Origin to take corrective actions "to improve structural performance during operation as well as organizational changes" at the company.

Blue Origin's rescheduled launch for Tuesday will carry only cargo. The rocket, which will lift off from the company's private facility in West Texas, is reusable and flies autonomously. New Shepard has carried 31 passengers on various flights to 340,000 feet, past the edge of space, to experience a few minutes of weightlessness before returning to Earth.

In an interview published last week by podcaster Lex Fridman, Bezos lamented the time it has taken to get Blue Origin back to suborbital space, saying the company needs to move "with some sense of urgency."

"Blue Origin needs to be much faster, and it's one of the reasons that I left my role as the CEO of Amazon a couple of years ago," Bezos said. "Blue Origin needs me right now."