SpaceX competitor a no go for launch

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 canceled due to unspecified technical issues.

The towering 98-meter rocket, dubbed New Glenn in honor of legendary astronaut John Glenn, was scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Monday.

But the countdown repeatedly stalled as teams scrambled to resolve anomalies.

"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 a live webcast.

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 Falcon 9 rockets. Musk wished Blue Origin "Good luck!" on X.

SpaceX is planning the next orbital test of Starship this week, upping the high-stakes rivalry.