New Glenn 2nd Launch Attempt Off Until Thursday

I didn't decide until fairly late yesterday evening to not set an alarm to get up to watch the New Glenn Maiden Flight.  It was close to 11:30 and the alarm would have been set for 12:45 AM this morning.  Why not get up?  The thought that I was almost sure they wouldn't launch this morning, and if they did, it would be after long delays.  First flights aren't normal flights and they're doing critically important things for the first time; that is, they've practiced many things but the atmosphere of a maiden flight test is different than that in the previous tests. 

As you probably expect, the first thing I did this morning was check to see if it had launched, to find that it hadn't.  That's when I found they delayed until 45 minutes were left in the three hour window - so they declared the scrub at 3:15AM ET.

Throughout the window, which opened at 1 am ET (06:00 UTC), the company continued to reset the countdown clock as launch engineers worked out technical issues with the rocket.

I felt like I'd made the right decision after all and started looking for the next launch time.  That didn't show up until rather late in the day today - I think I first saw it at close to 5:00 PM - and said they will try  again tomorrow (Wednesday) morning.  A couple of hours later that bounced out to Thursday morning, Jan 16 at 1:00 AM ET.

According to sources, the primary problem was likely ice clogging one of the vent lines that carry pressurized gas away from the vehicle. Several attempts were made to melt the ice, but these efforts were not successful, necessitating the scrub. Hopefully Blue Origin will provide more information about the cause of the scrub in the coming days.

I was a little surprised at the 24 hour turnaround to try tomorrow morning and so it makes sense to me they've changed to a three day delay.  Whether or not that ice clogging was the actual issue, they must feel they have isolated and overcome whatever it was.  I'd also be less than surprised if they changed the schedule again.  

There are other reasons for pushing as hard as they can.  First is that they've been watching sea states for their droneship Jacklyn where they intend to try to land the booster and some forecasts are showing the seas getting worse as the week goes by.  The other issue is that the current launch period for New Glenn closes on January 16, although that may just be a phone call to the right person at the FAA. 

This New Glenn vehicle during a hot fire test in the last week of December '24. Image credit: Blue Origin

While there was no equivalent countdown for Starship Flight Test 7, that has also slipped to the right.  The current launch time is Wed Jan 15, at 5:00 PM EST, about eight hours ahead of New Glenn.