Blue Origin pushes back first launch of giant New Glenn rocket

Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket launch delayed due to technical issues, aiming to compete with SpaceX in orbital flights.

Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin will have to wait a little longer for the long-anticipated maiden orbital flight of its brand-new rocket after a launch attempt dragged on for hours before being cancelled due to unspecified technical issues.

The towering 320-foot (98-meter) rocket, dubbed New Glenn in honour of legendary astronaut John Glenn, was scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station during a three-hour window starting at 0600 GMT on Monday.

But the countdown repeatedly stalled as teams scrambled to resolve "anomalies," before the mission was officially "scrubbed" around 3:10 am -- a common occurrence in the space industry, but disappointing nonetheless for the hundreds of thousands of people who stayed up to watch the live feed.

"We are standing down today's launch attempt to troubleshoot a vehicle subsystem issue that will take us beyond our launch window," Ariane Cornell, a Blue Origin executive, said on the webcast.

She added: "We are reviewing opportunities for our next launch attempt."

With the mission, dubbed NG-1, billionaire Amazon founder Bezos is taking aim at the only man in the world wealthier than him: Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX dominates the orbital launch market through its prolific Falcon 9 rockets, vital for the commercial sector, the Pentagon and NASA.

Bezos, who founded Blue Origin a quarter-of-a-century ago and celebrated his 61st birthday on Sunday, watched events unfold from the nearby launch control room.