The aerospace company, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the eagerly awaited launch of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend due to unfavorable weather factors at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Causes
Precipitation and a ground system issue led to early setbacks, then came thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window ended, leaving mission controllers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.
Competition between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been intensifying in the past few months.
New Launch Window
To relieve traffic in the skies amid the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is limiting private space launches starting Monday.
Following the cancellation of the launch, Blue Origin said on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was targeting another attempt as early as midweek within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will carry the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, to study the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of human exploration.
Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a key test of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the company if accomplished.
Earlier Mission
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in the start of the year was marked as a achievement, as its payload reached space and successfully performed tests.
But its main rocket section, which was meant to be recoverable, did not stick its touchdown on a ocean-based target in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during the return phase.
Landing Attempts
In its second effort Blue Origin will try once more to recover the first stage.
Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.
Industry Competition
The competing companies of tycoons Musk and Bezos are engaged in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as NASA opened up bids for its planned moon mission, complaining that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
Donald Trump’s second term has involved the administration pile pressure on NASA to accelerate its timeline to send a crewed mission to the Moon amid a race with China.
More rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to liftoff.”
“More launches means greater innovation in orbit,” an ex-agency official said. “It can’t be a negative to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”
