Jeff Bezos’s New Glenn debut launch called off
The launch of a huge, partially reusable rocket, built by Jeff Bezos’s company, has been called off this morning after hours of delays.
The 98-metre rocket, called New Glenn, is around as tall as Big Ben. It was set to carry up to 45 tonnes of tech to low Earth orbit.
However, the team at Blue Origin, Amazon founder Mr Bezos’s space technology company, confirmed this morning that the launch was called off.
The decision came following a series of delays due to unspecified issues.
As it happened: See our coverage from the launch
New Glenn on the launch pad at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in December. Pic: Blue Origin
The team said they would work out a new date for lift-off, adding: “We can’t wait to get right back here for our next launch attempt.”
The team said earlier this morning that they were “working through anomalies”.
Speaking in an interview before the launch, Mr Bezos said “the thing we’re most nervous about is the booster landing”.
“Clearly on a first flight you could have an anomaly at any mission phase, so anything could happen,” he said.
New Glenn’s builders hope it will challenge SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, which has become the go-to workhorse to get heavy cargo into space.
However, it has taken Blue Origin years to get to this point.
They started developing the orbital rocket almost a decade ago, but setbacks and delays pushed back its maiden voyage.
Ahead of the launch, SpaceX founder and X owner Elon Musk, shared his support, writing “good luck” in a response to a post by Blue Origin on his platform.
Reusable first stage
The rocket – named New Glenn in honour of NASA astronaut John Glenn, has two stages, one of which is reusable.
The first, reusable stage will use seven engines to blast the rocket off the launch pad into higher, thinner air and then drop back to Earth to land on a sea platform called Jacklyn.
New Glenn’s enormous first stage is transported from its factory. Pic: Blue Origin
That first stage is built to fly at least 25 times, making it more cost-effective and sustainable than building new rockets for every flight.
The second, disposable stage is where cargo and items needed for missions will be stored.
Read more:
Is Jeff Bezos chasing down Elon Musk in space race?
Stranded astronauts ‘don’t feel like castaways’
The two restartable engines on board will kick in once the first stage has used up all its fuel.
They’ll take the rest of the spacecraft out to orbit.
New Glenn could be a gamechanger
The New Glenn rocket is one to watch in the world of space.
Partially reusable and capable of lifting heavy payloads into Earth orbit or even the Moon or Mars, it promises to be a serious rival to Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9.
With his first big rocket only scheduled for launch now, you’d be forgiven for thinking Amazon boss Jeff Bezos was a latecomer to the billionaire boys club sending shiny machines into space.
In fact, Bezos founded his space venture Blue Origin 25 years ago, before Elon Musk created SpaceX and Richard Branson launched Virgin Galactic.
His rocket business kept a low profile until 2015 when it launched its sub-orbital space tourism vehicle New Shepherd 100km above the Earth.
While New Shephard can be dismissed as a billionaire’s plaything for millionaire passengers, New Glenn could be a game changer.
It’s a key tool to deliver Bezos’s Project Kuiper satellite broadband network – a direct challenge to Musk’s Starlink system.
Blue Origin is also working on a lunar lander and, its thought, crew capsules so it can offer its services ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station or be part of NASA’s plans to return humans to the Moon.
New Glenn is set to carry Blue Ring, an experimental “space tug” and satellite support platform, but for Jeff Bezos, there’s a lot more riding on this rocket than that.
Cargo
Rockets like this are designed to take things into orbit or out to space, so they need to be able to carry cargo.
When Mr Musk launched SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy rocket in 2018, he popped his old red Tesla Roadster on board.
Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster was launched into space during a Falcon test flight in 2018. Pic: SpaceX
The Blue Ring Pathfinder heading into New Glenn’s huge cargo area. Pic: Blue Origin
Mr Bezos hasn’t done anything as showy as that. Instead, he loaded a prototype cargo carrier onto New Glenn, called the Blue Ring Pathfinder.
In the future, the Pathfinder will be able to carry 3,000kg of scientific gear into space and deliver it to different locations in orbit.
During this test flight, the team back on the ground will make sure they can establish communications with the Pathfinder once it is in orbit.
Elon Musk has stepped up his attacks on Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill – weeks after a spectacular fallout between the world’s richest man and the US president.
Following weeks of relative silence after clashing with Mr Trump over his “big beautiful bill”, the billionaire vowed to unseat politicians who support it.
In a post on X, Musk said those who had campaigned on cutting spending but then backed the bill “should hang their heads in shame”.
He added: “And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.”
Musk also threatened to put their faces on a poster which said “liar” and “voted to increase America’s debt” by $5trn (£3.6trn).
The posts attracted a swift reply from Mr Trump, who claimed the billionaire “may get more subsidy than any human being in history” for his electric car business.
“Without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa,” he wrote on Truth Social.
“No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Elon’s dad on the Musk-Trump bust-up
Musk spent at least $250m (£182m) supporting Mr Trump in his presidential campaign and then led the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which sacked about 120,000 federal employees.
He has argued the legislation would greatly increase the US national debt and wipe out the savings he claimed he achieved through DOGE.
As the Senate discussed the package, Musk called it “utterly insane and destructive”.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said the bill’s massive spending indicated “we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!!”
“Time for a new political party that actually cares about the people,” he wrote.
Read more from Sky News:
Stab victim describes horrible reality of knife crime
Royal train to be scrapped with family to rely on helicopters
👉 Follow Trump100 on your podcast app 👈
Musk previously said some of his social media posts during his dramatic fallout with Mr Trump “went too far”.
He had shared a series of posts on X, including one that described Mr Trump’s tax and spending bill as a “disgusting abomination”.
He also claimed, in a since-deleted post, that the president appeared in files relating to the disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
But Musk later wrote: “I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far.”
In response, the president told the New York Post: “I thought it was very nice that he did that.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be meeting Donald Trump next Monday, according to US officials.
The visit on 7 July comes after Mr Trump suggested it was possible a ceasefire in Gaza could be reached within a week.
On Sunday, he wrote on social media: “MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!!”
At least 60 people killed across Gaza on Monday, in what turned out to be some of the heaviest attacks in weeks.
Benjamin Netanyahu, left, with Donald Trump during a previous meeting. Pic: Reuters
According to the Hamas-run health ministry, 56,500 people have been killed in the 20-month war.
The visit by Mr Netanyahu to Washington has not been formally announced and the officials who said it would be going ahead spoke on condition of anonymity.
An Israeli official in Washington also confirmed the meeting next Monday.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration was in constant communication with the Israeli government.
She said Mr Trump viewed ending the war in Gaza and returning remaining hostages held by Hamas as a top priority.
Read more from Sky News:
Queen Elizabeth II’s favourite form of transport to be scrapped
How does sunscreen work?
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The war in Gaza broke out in retaliation for Hamas’ 7 October 2023 attacks on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw a further 250 taken hostage.
An eight-week ceasefire was reached in the final days of Joe Biden’s US presidency, but Israel resumed the war in March after trying to get Hamas to accept new terms on next steps.
Talks between Israel and Hamas have stalled over whether the war should end as part of any ceasefire.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike