Nov. 9 (UPI) — Blue Origin scrubbed its launch of the New Glenn rocket into low-Earth orbit Sunday, with a pair of Mars-bound satellites on board, because of bad weather rolling through the area.
The launch of the company’s second New Glenn rocket into low-Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida was scrubbed minutes before liftoff after two holds.
The scheduled launch was pushed back several times as the weather shifted for several hours prior to liftoff.
The launch window, which opened at 2:45 p.m. EDT on Sunday, officially closed at 4:13 p.m. EST. The company had pushed liftoff back to 4:12:30 p.m. until a giant bank of cumulus clouds formed in the rocket’s flight path and forced engineers to scrub the mission.
Blue Origin said the launch was tentatively rescheduled for Monday at about 2 p.m. EST.
“While options to launch on Nov. 9 and Nov. 10 are available, Blue Origin will need special FAA approval due to new restrictions that take effect on Nov. 10, due to the government shutdown,” Space.com reported.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said earlier this weekend that, with air traffic controller towers understaffed during the federal government shutdown, the FAA is restricting commercial rocket launches to between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. to limit airspace restrictions that are required missions to space.
While the weather remained an issue throughout the countdown and the launch was put on hold several times, flight controllers were also having trouble reaching the captain of a cruise boat that had traveled into the safety perimeter around the launch area.
The Blue Origin Mars mission, carrying a pair of ESCAPADE Mars probes on the partially reusable New Glenn rocket, had already been delayed for a year by fueling and other engineering issues.