Blue Origin launch LIVE: Jeff Bezos New Glenn rocket to be fired into space on maiden voyage after multiple delays

We’ve heard from the Blue Origin team on the repeated delays as the company insist they want to give the launch team the ‘right time and space they need’.

For the moment we have decided to put more time on the clock which means that we still have a chance, still have the opportunity to launch this evening

We have spent years designing this rocket, we have spent months and months designing this mission… if we need a couple more minutes especially on this first launch, that is a-OK.

Previous launches have been abandoned due to conditions at sea but we don’t believe the weather is the reason behind the delays this morning.

Doubts are beginning to emerge whether a launch will take place in Florida this morning after the New Glenn lift-off was hit by repeated delays.

But while there’s still a chance of some action at Cape Canaveral, let’s outline five key things about this mission:

• Jeff Bezos’ space project Blue Origin is preparing the maiden voyage of its New Glenn rocket, which has been in development for 10 years and a major focal point for the company
• A successful launch will give Bezos huge momentum in the ongoing space race with Elon Musk as the billionaires try and steal a march on the commercial space market.
• New Glenn is more than twice as powerful as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and has dozens of customer launch contracts collectively worth billions of dollars lined up.
• Like SpaceX’s Falcon rockets, the booster part of New Glenn is partially reusable. The mission, the culmination of a decade-long, multi-billion-dollar development journey, will include an attempt to land New Glenn’s first stage booster on a sea-fairing barge in the Atlantic Ocean 10 minutes after liftoff, while the rocket’s second stage continues toward orbit.
• In a pre-launch meeting, the Amazon founder told Reuters: ‘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’.

Why is this launch so important? It could mark a challenge against Elon Musk’s dominance in the commercial space market.

The development of New Glenn has spanned three Blue Origin CEOs and faced numerous delays as Elon Musk’s SpaceX grew into an industry juggernaut with its reusable Falcon 9, the world’s most active rocket.

Bezos (pictured) in late 2023 moved to speed things up at Blue Origin, prioritizing the development of New Glenn and its BE-4 engines.

He named Dave Limp, an Amazon veteran, as CEO, who employees say introduced a sense of urgency to compete with SpaceX.

New Glenn is more than twice as powerful as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and has dozens of customer launch contracts collectively worth billions of dollars lined up.

Lift-off has been delayed again this morning with a launch now targeted at 8:15am.

The exact reason behind these persistent delays is unknown at the moment but on a livestream the team were heard saying that engineers are ‘working through a few anomalies’.

Hello and welcome to MailOnline’s live coverage as Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin prepares for its inaugural launch of its New Glenn rocket from Florida early on Monday.

The launch into the Earth’s orbit will mark a major step towards a long-awaited goal of competing with Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the satellite launch market.

Standing 30 stories tall, the partially reusable New Glenn launcher sat on Blue Origin’s launchpad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, ready for its liftoff after being loaded with methane and liquid oxygen propellants.

The mission, the culmination of a decade-long, multi-billion-dollar development journey, will include an attempt to land New Glenn’s first stage booster on a sea-fairing barge in the Atlantic Ocean 10 minutes after liftoff, while the rocket’s second stage continues toward orbit.

Lift-off was originially scheduled for 1:30 am ET (06:30am) but has been pushed back to 7:48am.