Launch of Blue Origin's reusable rocket is called off

Blue Origin, the space company owned by the billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has postponed the launch of a new reusable rocket because of a technical issue.

The rocket, named New Glenn, had been due to blast off from Florida and had already been delayed several times.

Posting on social media, Blue Origin said: "We're standing down on today's launch attempt to troubleshoot a vehicle subsystem issue that will take us beyond our launch window."

The rocket is now being drained of fuel before another launch is scheduled. "We're reviewing opportunities for our next launch attempt," the company said.

Billionaires competing in space

Jeff Bezos (right) has ambitions to compete with fellow billionaire Elon Musk (left) and his SpaceX company

The rocket, New Glenn, is named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth.

Once it does launch, the rocket booster is designed to land on a platform in the Atlantic, so it can be used again.

Jeff Bezos, who is the person behind the company Amazon, hopes his rockets can rival that of SpaceX.

SpaceX is another commercial space company that already has several contracts with American space agency Nasa and is owned by fellow billionaire Elon Musk.

Why was the Blue Origin launch called off?

Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket - which has been 10 years in development - had been primed to launch on Monday in Florida.

It followed postponements from previous days due to conditions at sea, where the rocket's landing platform is located.

The hope had been for the rocket to journey into orbit - which would have been a first for Blue Origin - while a booster detaches and lands on the platform in the Atlantic Ocean.

The company first stated they were working through "a few anomalies" during countdown to the New Glenn's blast off, before cancelling the launch.

Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket sits on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida

Why is the New Glenn rocket a big deal?

It's not just Nasa turning to private space companies for help, there is a growing number of satellites being launched now, as tech businesses look to use their equipment in space.

Sinead O'Sullivan, is a former Nasa engineer and a board member of the European Space Policy Institute in Vienna says that if a future launch is successful, New Glenn will "become the second largest reusable vehicle after SpaceX's Falcon nine rocket.

"So this is going to compete directly, in many ways, with SpaceX, and we have yet to see a competitor really be able to do that thus far."