Blue Origin, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the highly anticipated launch of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend due to adverse weather conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Mission Postponement Causes
Rainfall and a ground system issue caused early setbacks, then came cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window ended, leaving managers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Rivalry between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in recent months.
New Launch Window
To relieve traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is restricting private space launches starting Monday.
Following the cancellation of the mission, Blue Origin said late Sunday that, working alongside the FAA, it was aiming for another attempt as soon as Wednesday within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will carry the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to Mars, to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of sending people there.
The mission will also act as a crucial trial of its ability to perform reusable rocket landing, which would represent a major advancement for the company if successful.
Earlier Mission
The rocket's first launch in January was considered a achievement, as its payload achieved orbit and successfully performed experiments.
But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, did not stick its landing on a platform in the ocean, and instead was lost during the return phase.
Landing Attempts
In its second effort Blue Origin will try once more to recover the first stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that feat.
Space Race
The competing companies of tycoons Bezos and Musk are engaged in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency began accepting bids for its lunar exploration program, complaining that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
Donald Trump’s second term has involved the administration push the agency to accelerate its progress to send a crewed mission to the Moon in competition against China.
Increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”
“More launches means more ideas in orbit,” an ex-agency official stated. “It can’t be a bad thing to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”
