Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin Begins 2nd Attempt of New Glenn Rocket Launch: Live Updates

10 minutes before liftoff time, the launch director will conduct a “go poll” asking people if the rocket’s systems are ready and if weather conditions are favorable.

The last four minutes before launch are the “terminal countdown”, when the rocket’s computer takes over the countdown process.

The seven engines in the booster will ignite 5.6 seconds before liftoff. It gives the computer a chance to check the performance of the engines before committing to lift. If something is not quite right, it will shut down the engines.

If all is well, the clamps holding the rocket will release and New Glenn will rise into the sky.

A defining moment will come one minute, 39 seconds after launch, when the rocket passes through what is known as max-Q, where the atmospheric pressure on the rocket is greatest.

If it passes through that moment intact, during the third minute of flight the booster will finish pushing the rocket upwards and the engines will shut down. Twelve seconds later it will fall away, and nine seconds after that the second-stage engine will fire.

Not long after, the fairing – the two halves of the nose cone that protect the payload – will fall out. At that altitude the atmosphere is thin enough that the cloak is no longer necessary.

Over the next few minutes, the booster will light up twice as it attempts to land on a floating platform named Jacklyn, after Jeff Bezos’ mother, in the Atlantic Ocean.

Meanwhile, the second-stage engine will continue to fire until nearly 13 minutes after launch, then shut down.

Blue Origin will then power up a prototype of its Blue Ring space tug and test the communications, power and computer systems. It remains attached to the rocket’s second stage.

About an hour after launch, the second stage will perform another engine burn to push it into a high elliptical orbit, coming as close as 1,500 miles from Earth and swinging as far away as 12,000 miles. That’s much higher than launches into low Earth orbit, a few hundred miles up.

In an interview on Sunday, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin, said that orbit will allow testing of the communication systems at a wide range of altitudes. “And that puts the vehicle in a very harsh radiation environment that we also want to test,” he said.

Then, almost six hours after launch, the mission will be over. The systems on the rocket stage and the Blue Ring will be made safe and shut down, and they will continue their elliptical orbits. Few other satellites occupy this region, making the chances of it colliding with something else slim.

“It will be disposed of in place,” said Mr. Bezos.