Blue Origin, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the eagerly awaited launch of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday because of adverse meteorological conditions at the Florida launch site.
Launch Delay Reasons
Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground caused initial delays, then came cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch ended, forcing mission controllers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Rivalry between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in recent months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To relieve airspace congestion during the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting private space launches from the beginning of the week.
After scrubbing the mission, Blue Origin said on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the FAA, it was aiming for another attempt as soon as Wednesday within a time slot of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.
Launch Goals
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will carry NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to Mars, to study the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of sending people there.
The mission will also act as a key test of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the firm if successful.
Earlier Mission
The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was marked as a achievement, as its cargo reached space and successfully performed experiments.
But its first-stage booster, which was designed as reusable, did not stick its landing on a ocean-based target in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during descent.
Landing Attempts
For this new mission Blue Origin will try once more to land the first stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.
Space Race
The competing companies of billionaires Musk and Bezos are engaged in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as the space agency began accepting bids for its lunar exploration program, noting that SpaceX was lagging behind.
Donald Trump’s second term has seen the government push NASA to speed up its progress to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface in competition against China.
Increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “expand our options with regard to launch.”
“Additional missions means greater innovation in space,” an ex-agency official said. “It can’t be a bad thing to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”
