The aerospace company, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the highly anticipated liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday because of adverse meteorological factors at Cape Canaveral.
Mission Postponement Causes
Rainfall and a ground system issue led to initial delays, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch closed, forcing managers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been intensifying in recent months.
New Launch Window
To ease airspace congestion amid the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs starting Monday.
After scrubbing the launch, the company announced on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was targeting a new try as early as midweek within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.
Mission Objectives
When it eventually launches, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will carry NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to Mars, 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 crucial trial of its ability to perform reusable rocket landing, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the company if accomplished.
Previous Flight
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in the start of the year was marked as a success, as its payload achieved orbit and completed tests.
But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, failed to make its landing on a platform in the ocean, and instead was lost during descent.
Landing Attempts
For this new mission the launch provider will make another attempt to recover the first stage.
Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.
Space Race
The competing companies of billionaires Bezos and Musk are engaged in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as the space agency opened up bids for its lunar exploration program, noting that one company was falling behind schedule.
Donald Trump’s second term has seen the government push the agency to accelerate its timeline to send a crewed mission to the Moon amid a race with the Asian nation.
More rivalry between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”
“Additional missions means greater innovation in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It isn't a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”
