Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin delays its first-ever NASA mission, says ‘We're reviewing ...’

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's rocket company, Blue Origin, has once postponed the launch of its New Glenn rocket carrying twin NASA Mars probes. The delay was caused by unfavourable weather conditions at its launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The planned mission was delayed just one day before new federal restrictions on commercial spaceflights took effect.

The launch, which was intended to send NASA's Mars ESCAPADE orbiters toward the Red Planet, was scrubbed during an 88-minute window. However, the delay has forced Blue Origin to work with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to secure an exception to new restrictions. The FAA announced an indefinite halt to all commercial daytime launches starting November 10 due to the government shutdown, which is affecting air traffic controller workloads.

What Blue Origin said about delaying the launch

In a post shared on X, the rocket company said: “Today’s NG-2 launch is scrubbed due to weather, specifically the cumulus cloud rule. We’re reviewing opportunities for our next launch attempt based on forecasted weather.”Later on, the company also shared an update on the next launch window. In another X post, the company wrote: “NG-2 Launch Update: Our next launch attempt is no earlier than Wednesday, November 12, due to forecasted weather and sea state conditions.

We worked with the FAA and range to select a launch window from 2:50 PM – 4:17 PM EST / 19:50 – 21:17 UTC. The live webcast starts at T-20 minutes.”

What is NASA’s ESCAPADE mission

NASA’s ESCAPADE mission, which is short for Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers, marks the agency’s first mission to Mars in five years after being delayed since October 2024. The twin ESCAPADE orbiters, built by Rocket Lab, are designed to study how solar wind and space weather have contributed to Mars losing much of its atmosphere, leaving the dry, barren planet seen today.Developed for under $80 million, the mission is led by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley. According to Blue Origin, the New Glenn rocket’s second stage will also carry a telemetry communications experiment for ViaSat as part of NASA’s Communications Services Project.ESCAPADE’s launch will be the second flight of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, following its first mission in January. The company aims to recover the first-stage booster by landing it on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean for future reuse, after an earlier attempt failed to achieve recovery.Blue Origin plans for New Glenn to serve as a main rocket for commercial satellite missions, heavy payload launches, and future crewed and uncrewed lunar missions using its Blue Moon landers.