Blue Origin, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the highly anticipated launch of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend because of adverse weather factors at Cape Canaveral.
Mission Postponement Reasons
Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground led to initial delays, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch ended, forcing managers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.
Rivalry between Blue Origin and Musk's space company has been heating up in the past few months.
New Launch Window
To relieve traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.
Following the cancellation of the launch, the company said on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was targeting another attempt as soon as midweek within a window of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.
Mission Objectives
When it eventually launches, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will transport the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, in an effort to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of sending people there.
Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a crucial trial of its ability to perform reusable rocket landing, which would represent a major advancement for the firm if accomplished.
Earlier Mission
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in the start of the year was considered a success, as its payload reached space and successfully performed experiments.
But its first-stage booster, which was designed as recoverable, failed to make its landing on a platform in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.
Landing Attempts
For this new mission the launch provider will make another attempt to land the booster stage.
Thus far, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.
Industry Competition
The competing companies of tycoons Musk and Bezos are engaged in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as NASA began accepting bids for its planned moon mission, complaining that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has seen the administration push NASA to accelerate its timeline to launch astronauts to the Moon in competition against the Asian nation.
More rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”
“Additional missions means greater innovation in space,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It can’t be a negative to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”
