solar activity that has been Lighting up the night sky across North America Now this week, Jeff Bezos’ space company is having to postpone the second launch of its New Glenn mega-rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Hours before the scheduled launch on Wednesday, Blue Origin Said It has been held back by the effort because of solar activity and its “potential impact on the ESCAPADE spacecraft” – a Mars-based science mission the company is piloting into space for NASA. The new launch date has not been announced yet.
New Glenn’s first launch in January was mostly a successful demonstration mission for the rocket. However, Blue Origin delayed the second launch several times, and the company is cautious because this is the first time the rocket has had a commercial payload on it.
New Glenn almost flew last Sunday, but weather concerns and an errant cruise ship in the flight path, as well as some problems with the launchpad equipment, caused the company to postpone the attempt.
