Blue Origin, founded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, had planned to launch its New Shepard suborbital vehicle for its first moon-gravity mission on January 28. However, the launch was delayed due to thick clouds and issues with the booster’s avionics. The mission, known as NS-29, aims to test lunar gravity conditions by spinning the capsule at 11 revolutions per minute for two minutes. It will carry 30 research payloads across six key areas, including advanced resource utilization and entry systems, and more than half of these payloads are supported by NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program. The delay is significant as NS-29 was designed to test lunar technology and gather data for NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to send astronauts back to the moon in the near future. New Shepard has also been used for uncrewed missions since 2010.
Source: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/human-spaceflight/blue-origin-scrubs-landmark-new-shepard-moon-gravity-launch-due-to-weather-rocket-glitch