Mars Mission on Hold: Blue Origin's New Glenn Rocket Faces Delays

Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket is still sitting on a launchpad in Florida. It was supposed to take off on Sunday and again on Wednesday, but both attempts were called off. This time, the rocket is carrying NASA's ESCAPADE mission, which involves two spacecraft that will study Mars' magnetic field and atmosphere. The launch is now planned for Thursday afternoon. If everything goes well, Blue Origin will also try to land the rocket's booster on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean. This is something that SpaceX has done before, but Blue Origin is still working on perfecting it. The first delay was due to bad weather. The second delay was caused by something unexpected: space weather. The sun had sent out three huge bursts of charged particles, known as coronal mass ejections. Two of these merged and hit Earth's magnetic field, creating beautiful auroras but also causing problems for electronics. The third burst was expected to hit just as the ESCAPADE spacecraft was about to leave Earth's orbit. Scientists were worried that the radiation could damage the spacecraft's computers, preventing its solar panels from deploying. This would have been a disaster for the mission. New Glenn is a massive rocket, standing at 321 feet tall. It's taller than SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets but shorter than the Starship vehicle that SpaceX is testing. Despite its size, New Glenn is still proving to be a challenge to launch.