Blue Origin, the rocket company founded by Amazon multibillionaire Jeff Bezos, is set for another attempt to launch its towering New Glenn rocket on a mission that will mark its first major test.Carrying a pair of satellites that are destined to take a long, winding trip to Mars, New Glenn is scheduled to take flight from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station during a launch window that runs from 2:57 to 4:25 p.m. ET Thursday. Blue Origin is expected to host a livestream of the event about 20 minutes prior to takeoff.Blue Origin had been slated to launch a NASA mission, called Escapade, on Sunday, but cloud cover resulted in the decision to postpone liftoff. The company then had to work with the Federal Aviation Administration, which recently implemented a ban on most rocket launches during daylight hours amid the government shutdown, to find a new opportunity to take off.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThen, a massive solar storm that graced the skies with auroras precluded the company from attempting liftoff on Wednesday, Blue Origin said in a social media post on X. Surges in space weather like the one that occurred this week bring with them waves of radiation and particles that can damage spacecraft.The launch of Escapade — short for Escape and Plasma Acceleration Dynamics Explorers — will mark the first flight for New Glenn with a customer payload onboard. The rocket completed its inaugural flight in January carrying Blue Origin-made demonstration technology in its cargo bay.As in January, Blue Origin will once again attempt to recover New Glenn’s first-stage booster, which is the bottommost portion of the rocket that gives the vehicle its initial burst of power at liftoff, by aiming to land it on a seafaring barge called Jacklyn.Much like Blue Origin’s chief competitor, SpaceX — which has long been a dominant force in the commercial launch business — Blue Origin rockets are designed to be partially reused in order to drive down costs.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBlue Origin had hoped to nail its first attempt at landing a New Glenn booster during that orbital flight in January, but engines failed to reignite properly, causing the rocket to veer off course.Failing to land the rocket booster does not necessarily affect how companies assess the overall success of a mission, as the primary goal of any rocket launch is to safely deliver its cargo to orbit. But Blue Origin has made clear that the steps of recovering and reflying parts of its rockets are crucial to the company’s business model.And Blue Origin said it has spent the past 10 months largely focused on tweaking the New Glenn vehicle in the hopes of guaranteeing a successful booster landing.A landmark Mars missionWorkers inspect and process NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in August 2024. – Kim Shiflett/NASA …
