Blue Origin, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the highly anticipated launch of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend because of adverse meteorological factors at the Florida launch site.
Launch Delay Reasons
Rainfall and a ground system issue caused initial delays, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window ended, leaving mission controllers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.
Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been intensifying in recent months.
New Launch Window
To relieve traffic in the skies amid the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs starting the beginning of the week.
After scrubbing the mission, the company announced late Sunday that, working alongside the FAA, it was aiming for a new try as soon as midweek within a time slot of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.
Launch Goals
When it eventually launches, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will carry the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to Mars, in an effort to study the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of sending people there.
The mission will also serve as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would represent a major advancement for the firm if successful.
Previous Flight
The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was considered a success, as its payload reached space and successfully performed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was designed as reusable, failed to make its landing on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and instead was lost during the return phase.
Landing Attempts
For this new mission the launch provider will make another attempt to recover the booster stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has managed that feat.
Space Race
The competing companies of tycoons Musk and Bezos are locked in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as NASA opened up bids for its lunar exploration program, complaining that one company was falling behind schedule.
Donald Trump’s second term has involved the government pile pressure on the agency to accelerate its progress to launch astronauts to the lunar surface in competition against China.
More rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “expand our options with regard to launch.”
“Additional missions means more ideas in space,” an ex-agency official stated. “It can’t be a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”