Blue Origin, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the eagerly awaited liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday because of adverse meteorological factors at the Florida launch site.
Mission Postponement Causes
Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground caused early setbacks, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch ended, forcing managers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Rivalry between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in recent months.
New Launch Window
To ease traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting private space launches starting Monday.
After scrubbing the mission, the company announced on Sunday evening that, working alongside the FAA, it was aiming for a new try as early as midweek within a window of afternoon hours EST.
Launch Goals
When it eventually launches, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will transport NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, to study the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of sending people there.
The mission will also act as a crucial trial of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would prove a major advancement for the company if accomplished.
Previous Flight
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 first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, did not stick its touchdown on a platform in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.
Landing Attempts
In its second effort Blue Origin will try once more to recover the booster stage.
Thus far, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.
Industry Competition
The competing companies of tycoons Bezos and Musk are engaged in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as the space agency began accepting bids for its lunar exploration program, complaining that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
Donald Trump’s second term has involved the government push NASA to accelerate its progress to launch astronauts to the Moon amid a race with the Asian nation.
More rivalry between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to liftoff.”
“Additional missions means greater innovation in space,” an ex-agency official stated. “It can’t be a negative to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”
