Jeff Bezos’ area firm Blue Origin scrubbed the second launch of its New Glenn mega-rocket deliberate for Sunday afternoon as a consequence of considerations with climate, a couple of minor issues with launch pad gear, and a minimum of one cruise ship that strayed too near the flight path.

It’s not instantly clear when the corporate will get one other go at launching New Glenn’s second mission. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) introduced restrictions on area launches late final week as a result of authorities shutdown. On November 7, Blue Origin posted on X that the corporate was working with the FAA to verify Sunday’s launch might occur. After the launch scrub Sunday, the corporate stated it’s “reviewing alternatives for our subsequent launch try based mostly on forecasted climate.”

This mission is a crucial one for Blue Origin for quite a lot of causes.

For one, the corporate remains to be proving out the total reusability of the rocket. New Glenn efficiently reached orbit throughout its first launch in January, however the booster exploded earlier than it might land on a drone ship within the ocean. Blue Origin hopes to land the booster for the primary time throughout this second flight.

That is additionally the primary industrial mission for New Glenn. The rocket will carry NASA’s ESCAPADE spacecraft into area, the place it can embark on a mission to Mars. New Glenn can also be carrying a tech demonstrator for Viasat, which is a part of one other NASA venture. Proving New Glenn can safely ship payloads to area — and do it cheaply thanks largely to the rockets reusability — is essential if Blue Origin needs to compete towards Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Blue Origin initially deliberate to try the second launch earlier this 12 months, however delayed it a number of instances. Sunday’s launch window in Cape Canaveral, Florida initially opened at 2:45 p.m. native time, and the corporate had a window of roughly 90 minutes. The climate worries and the launch pad gear points brought about that launch time to slide a couple of instances.

With the clock operating once more simply minutes earlier than a launch try, a cruise ship entered the flight path, based on the printed. Whereas that ship was anticipated to clear earlier than the 4:15 p.m. shut of the launch window, the climate was nonetheless a priority, and brought about the corporate to clean the try.