Blue Origin, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the highly anticipated launch of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday due to adverse weather conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Mission Postponement Causes
Rainfall and a ground system issue led to early setbacks, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window closed, leaving managers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.
Rivalry between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in recent months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To ease traffic in the skies amid the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from the beginning of the week.
After scrubbing the launch, the company announced late Sunday that, working alongside the FAA, it was aiming for a new try as soon as Wednesday within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will transport NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, in an effort to study the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of sending people there.
Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a key test of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the firm if successful.
Previous Flight
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was considered a success, as its payload achieved orbit and successfully performed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was designed as reusable, did not stick its landing on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and instead was lost during descent.
Landing Attempts
In its second effort the launch provider will try once more to recover the first stage.
Thus far, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.
Space Race
The competing companies of billionaires Musk and Bezos are locked in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as NASA began accepting proposals for its lunar exploration program, noting that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
Donald Trump’s second term has involved the administration pile pressure on the agency to accelerate its progress to launch astronauts to the Moon in competition against the Asian nation.
Increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”
“Additional missions means greater innovation in space,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It isn't a negative to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”
