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NASA’s first Mars mission in five years will have to wait a while. Bad weather on Florida’s Space Coast forced Blue Origin to scrub Sunday’s attempted launch of the New Glenn rocket with just 20 minutes remaining on the countdown clock. “Today’s NG-2 launch is scrubbed due to weather, specifically the cumulus cloud rule,” Blue Origin said in a post on X. “We’re reviewing opportunities for our next launch attempt based on forecasted weather.” Recommended Videos The mission’s postponement causes something of a headache for NASA and Blue Origin as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday announced an emergency order restricting commercial rocket launches to off-peak nighttime hours to reduce the pressure on air traffic controllers who, due to the U.S. government shutdown, are currently working without pay. Blue Origin’s next launch opportunity is in the daytime on Monday, so it will have to request an exemption from the FAA in order to proceed. When the mission finally gets underway, the New Glenn will launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida and send NASA’s twin ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) spacecraft to Mars. The liftoff is set to be quite a sight, with the 98-meter-tall rocket generating nearly four million pounds of thrust as it leaves the launchpad and heads skyward. The New Glenn first flew in January 2025, deploying a pathfinder satellite to orbit. ESACPADE is the spaceflight company’s first operational mission for NASA. NASA’s ESCAPADE mission will explore how the solar wind interacts with Mars’ magnetic environment, and how the interaction causes Mars’ atmosphere to leak into space. It’s hoped that the mission will offer up answers regarding Mars’ past and present ability to support life. It should also help engineers and scientists better understand the viability of human missions to the distant planet by examining radiation risks and other potential challenges.
