WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin called off a return-to-flight launch of its suborbital New Shepard rocket from Texas over what it described as a ground system issue encountered during preparations for liftoff, the company said.
“We’re scrubbing #NS24 today due to a ground system issue the team is troubleshooting,” Blue Origin wrote on social network X, formally Twitter. “We’ll provide a new launch target for this week soon.”
New Shepard, the company’s only active rocket that can carry humans and cargo on short trips to and from the brim of space, was scheduled to launch at 9:30 a.m. CT (1530 GMT) on Monday for the first time since a mission failure last year triggered a 15-month grounding.
No humans were to be on board the mission, named NS24 for what would have been its 24th flight.
(Reporting by Joey Roulette; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
