The aerospace company, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the highly anticipated liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday because of adverse meteorological factors at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Reasons
Rainfall and a ground system issue led to initial delays, then came cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch ended, forcing managers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.
Rivalry between Bezos' firm 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 Federal Aviation Administration is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.
After scrubbing the launch, Blue Origin announced late Sunday that, in coordination with the FAA, it was targeting another attempt as early as midweek within a window of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.
Launch Goals
When it eventually launches, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will transport NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, in an effort to study the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of human exploration.
The mission will also serve as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would prove a major advancement for the firm if successful.
Earlier Mission
The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was considered a achievement, as its cargo achieved orbit and successfully performed tests.
But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be recoverable, failed to make its touchdown on a platform in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during descent.
Landing Attempts
For this new mission Blue Origin will make another attempt to land the first stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that feat.
Industry Competition
The competing companies of billionaires Bezos and Musk are locked in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as NASA opened up bids for its lunar exploration program, complaining that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has seen the government push the agency to speed up its timeline to send a crewed mission to the Moon in competition against China.
More rivalry between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to liftoff.”
“Additional missions means more ideas in space,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It can’t be a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”
