Blue Origin, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the highly anticipated launch of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend due to unfavorable meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Causes
Rainfall and a ground system issue led to initial delays, then came cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window closed, leaving mission controllers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Rivalry between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in the past few months.
New Launch Window
To ease traffic in the skies amid the US federal government shutdown, the aviation regulator is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.
After scrubbing the mission, Blue Origin announced late Sunday that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was targeting a new try as soon as midweek within a window of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will transport the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, in an effort to examine the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of sending people there.
Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a key test of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would represent a major advancement for the firm if accomplished.
Previous Flight
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was marked as a achievement, as its cargo reached space and completed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was designed as recoverable, did not stick its landing on a platform in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during descent.
Landing Attempts
In its second effort the launch provider will make another attempt to recover the booster stage.
Until now, only SpaceX has managed that feat.
Industry Competition
The competing companies of billionaires Bezos and Musk are locked in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as NASA opened up proposals for its planned moon mission, noting that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has involved the government pile pressure on the agency to speed up its progress to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface in competition against the Asian nation.
More rivalry between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to launch.”
“Additional missions means more ideas in space,” an ex-agency official said. “It can’t be a bad thing to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”
