Blue Origin, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to delay the highly anticipated launch of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday because of unfavorable weather conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Mission Postponement Reasons
Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground caused early setbacks, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch closed, forcing mission controllers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.
Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been heating up in the past few months.
New Launch Window
To relieve traffic in the skies amid the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is restricting private space launches starting the beginning of the week.
Following the cancellation of the mission, the company said on Sunday evening that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was targeting a new try as early as midweek within a time slot of afternoon hours EST.
Mission Objectives
When it eventually launches, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, to examine the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of sending people there.
Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the firm if successful.
Earlier Mission
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was marked as a success, as its payload achieved orbit and completed tests.
But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, did not stick its touchdown on a platform in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during descent.
Landing Attempts
In its second effort Blue Origin will make another attempt to recover the booster stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.
Space Race
The competing companies of tycoons Bezos and Musk are engaged in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as the space agency began accepting bids for its planned moon mission, noting that SpaceX was lagging behind.
Donald Trump’s second term has involved the government pile pressure on the agency to speed up its timeline to launch astronauts to the lunar surface in competition against China.
Increased competition between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to liftoff.”
“Additional missions means more ideas in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It can’t be a negative to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”
