The aerospace company, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the eagerly awaited launch of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday due to adverse weather conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Causes
Rainfall and a ground system issue led to early setbacks, followed by thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch ended, forcing managers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.
Competition between Blue Origin and Musk's space company has been heating up in the past few months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To ease airspace congestion during the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting private space launches from Monday.
Following the cancellation of the launch, the company said late Sunday that, working alongside the FAA, it was aiming for a new try as early as Wednesday within a window of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will transport NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, in an effort to study the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of human exploration.
Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a key test of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the company if successful.
Previous Flight
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in the start of the year was marked as a success, as its payload reached space and completed 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 descent.
Landing Attempts
For this new mission Blue Origin will make another attempt to land the booster stage.
Until now, only SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.
Space Race
The competing companies of billionaires Bezos and Musk are engaged in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as NASA opened up bids for its planned moon mission, complaining that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has seen the administration push the agency to accelerate its timeline to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface amid a race with China.
More rivalry between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”
“Additional missions means more ideas in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It isn't a negative to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”
