How Blue Origin’s Sunday night launch went from giant leap to awkward stumble

There were high hopes for the maiden launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket on Sunday, but sadly, it wasn’t to be.

The late-night NG-1 mission was supposed to be a giant leap for Blue Origin rocket technology, but the 98-meter-tall vehicle failed to get off the ground as planned.

Blue Origin’s live stream kicked off at midnight ET, 60 minutes before the three-hour launch window opened for the New Glenn’s departure from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Welcoming viewers to the stream, presenters Ariane Cornell and Denisse Aranda beamed enthusiastically as they shared their excitement for the debut flight of Blue Origin’s first orbital rocket.

“This is happening,” Ariane said. Except that it wasn’t.

At around 12:30 a.m., with 27 minutes to go until the first launch opportunity, the stream dropped in on a bunch of kids and their parents waiting to watch the launch from a park close to Cape Canaveral. The children smiled and cheered, perhaps in anticipation of the imminent liftoff, though definitely because they were up way past their bedtimes. We also visited Blue Origin employees at multiple sites across the U.S., cheering excitedly ahead of launch. The one that didn’t quite happen.

Early on, things seemed to be going smoothly enough for the spaceflight company founded by Jeff Bezos. But then, just 17 minutes from liftoff, the countdown clock on the screen suddenly disappeared before quickly reappearing with an extra 20 minutes added. If you blinked, you would’ve missed it.

“They just need a couple more minutes … that is A OK with all of us,” Ariane said in a reassuring voice that gave no indication of what was coming.

It was fine, anyway, as the delay gave the live stream more time to play all of the prepared video inserts explaining everything about the New Glenn rocket and its Blue Ring Pathfinder payload.

But disappointingly, 11 minutes later, the countdown clock jumped again, adding another 14 minutes to take it back to 33 minutes. Folks watching the stream at home may have started to wonder if the problem was with the clock itself, not with the rocket. At this rate, unless the engineers could work out why the darn clock kept adding minutes, we could be stuck here for weeks.

But then things began to look up as the clock ticked all the way down to 9 minutes before launch … before suddenly resetting to 29 minutes. There was mention of a checklist that the Blue Origin engineers had to get through.

Popular YouTuber Tim Dodd of Everyday Astronaut, who was running his own live stream commentating on the commentators, took a deep breath. “Oh no, another delay. You know, it’s not ideal for my sleep schedule, it’s really not,” Tim said.

Back at the park, the kids weren’t smiling anymore. Approaching 2 a.m. ET, it really was way past their bedtime now. Even some of the parents had a “it’s way past my bedtime, too,” look on their faces. Heck, even Bezos was probably stifling a yawn or two. One little girl, who fortunately was still awake, was asked what she was most looking forward to about the launch. “Going home once this is all over,” she probably wanted to say, but staying on-message like a true Blue Origin believer, she responded: “For the rocket to go up into space.” She didn’t know it then, but it was asking a lot.

Promisingly, the clock continued to tick down, all the way to 14 minutes. And then reset to 35 minutes. This time around, Ariane, perhaps not wanting to believe it, didn’t even acknowledge the delay. Exhausted folks at home may have started to wonder if their mind was playing tricks on them.

Tim emitted a chuckle of despair but tried to stay clear-headed about the situation. “I expect this, I expect delays, I am not shocked by this,” he said in a tone of voice that made you wonder if he really believed what he was saying.

By 2:15 a.m., the official Blue Origin live stream appeared to have run out of video inserts, leaving viewers to stare at footage of a rocket still very much on terra firma.

The New Glenn on the launchpad. “Hey, I ain’t going nowhere!” Blue Origin

At 11 minutes until liftoff, the countdown clock jumped yet again, resetting to 38 minutes. “Noooo, noooo, nooooo!” Tim said, noting that Blue Origin’s launch window was rapidly closing.

“They’re working through their checklist,” Ariane said again, leaving viewers to wonder if the oft-mentioned checklist, if laid out on a single piece of paper, might reach all the way to the moon.

The countdown clock made it to 12 minutes, and then, in its oddest switch yet, flipped to zero seconds. “It’s lifting off, it’s lifting off,” Tim said, adding, “It’s not lifting off … that is not a good sign.”

The Blue Origin live stream camera stayed firmly fixed on the New Glenn rocket, which itself appeared to be firmly fixed to the ground. Ariane and Denisse stayed silent. Perhaps they’d fallen asleep. Folks watching the live stream continued to stare at the rocket. The silence was deafening. Had everyone gone home and forgotten to tell them?

At around 3 a.m., and possibly having just enjoyed a brief power nap, Ariane returned to the stream to announce that the launch had been scrubbed. The reason? Not a faulty countdown clock, but a “vehicle subsystem issue.”

Tim summed it up before heading to bed. “I kind of expected that, to be honest. Better to be safe than sorry.”

He’s right. It’s not unusual for maiden launches like this to face such issues. Blue Origin has to get it right, and it’s just bad luck for the folks who stayed up late in anticipation of enjoying what should eventually be a spectacular launch. There’ll be another chance soon, and hopefully the New Glenn will finally get to fire up its rocket engines and head skyward.

Fancy trying for another launch? SpaceX’s Starship megarocket is supposed to lift off on its seventh test flight on Wednesday. But do keep an eye on that countdown clock.