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After an initial 3-hr. delay and three countdown holds, Blue Origin scrubbed plans for an Oct. 7 uncrewed first suborbital launch of its second human-rated New Shepard rocket with its previously unflown RSS Karman Line crew capsule from the company’s Launch Site One near Van Horn in East Texas.
Originally planned for a 9 a.m. EDT liftoff, the planned launch moved to 12:10 p.m. EDT so the launch team could work through countdown procedures. But efforts to launch were scrubbed just before 1 p.m. EDT after three countdown holds, the last of which lasted just less than 30 min. to troubleshoot a telemetry issue.
A new launch date was not immediately announced.
Blue Origin was holding off to ensure a safe flight, according to Ali Walker, Blue Origin’s lead integration engineer, who participated in the company’s social media launch countdown commentary.
The NS-27 launch is to be the 27th for the New Shepard fleet, which made its debut on April 29, 2015.
NS-27 has been assembled to accommodate a dozen payloads—seven to be flown inside the crew capsule and five on the liquid hydrogen and oxygen fueled booster. The payloads included new navigation systems developed for both New Shepard and New Glenn, the company’s larger orbital rocket with a reusable first stage, which is nearing its debut launch, and a pair of LIDAR sensors for Blue Origin’s lunar lander under development as part of NASA’s Artemis initiative.
The company intends to step up its private astronaut launch cadence with the introduction of its second autonomous human-rated suborbital launch vehicle, Walker says.
“Every time we fly, the interest goes up and up,” she said.
New Shepard has so far launched with crews eight times, between July 20, 2021, and Aug. 29, 2024, with 42 different private astronauts and one who has launched twice.
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