Blue Origin will try again to launch its massive new rocket as early as Tuesday after calling off the debut launch because of ice build-up in critical plumbing.
The 98-metre New Glenn rocket was supposed to blast off in Florida before dawn on Monday with a prototype satellite.
But ice formed in a purge line for a unit powering some of the rocket’s hydraulic systems and launch controllers ran out of time to clear it, according to the company.
Founded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin said Tuesday’s poor weather forecast could cause more delays.
The New Glenn rocket is seen on Launch Complex 36 shortly before the launch attempt was scrapped (John Raoux/AP)
Thick clouds and stiff wind were expected at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The test flight had already been delayed by rough seas which posed a risk to the company’s plan to land the first-stage booster on a floating platform in the Atlantic.
New Glenn is named after the first American to orbit Earth, John Glenn.
It is five times taller than Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, which carries paying customers to the edge of space from Texas.
Mr Bezos founded the company 25 years ago. He took part in Monday’s countdown from Mission Control, located at the rocket factory just outside the gates of NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre.
“No matter what happens we’re going to pick ourselves up and keep going,” Mr Bezos said this weekend.