Blue Origin, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the eagerly awaited liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday due to unfavorable meteorological factors at Cape Canaveral.
Mission Postponement Causes
Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground led to early setbacks, then came cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch ended, leaving mission controllers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.
Rivalry between Blue Origin and Musk's space company has been heating up in recent months.
New Launch Window
To relieve traffic in the skies during the US federal government shutdown, the aviation regulator is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.
After scrubbing the mission, Blue Origin announced on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the FAA, it was targeting another attempt as soon as Wednesday within a window of afternoon hours EST.
Launch Goals
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, to study the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of human exploration.
Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a key test of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the company if accomplished.
Earlier Mission
The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was marked as a success, as its cargo achieved orbit and successfully performed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was meant to be recoverable, did not stick its landing on a platform in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during descent.
Recovery Efforts
For this new mission the launch provider will try once more to recover the booster stage.
Until now, only SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.
Industry Competition
The competing companies of tycoons Bezos and Musk are locked in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency opened up bids for its planned moon mission, complaining that one company was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has seen the administration pile pressure on NASA to speed up its progress to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface amid a race with the Asian nation.
More rivalry between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to launch.”
“More launches means more ideas in space,” an ex-agency official stated. “It isn't a bad thing to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”
