The aerospace company, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to delay the highly anticipated launch of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend because of adverse meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Causes
Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground caused early setbacks, then came thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch closed, leaving mission controllers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.
Rivalry between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been intensifying in the past few months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To ease airspace congestion amid the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is restricting private space launches from the beginning of the week.
Following the cancellation of the mission, Blue Origin announced on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the FAA, it was aiming for another attempt as early as Wednesday within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.
Launch Goals
When it eventually launches, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will transport the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, to study the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of human exploration.
The mission will also serve as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would represent 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 success, as its payload reached space and completed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was meant to be reusable, did not stick its landing on a ocean-based target in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during the return phase.
Landing Attempts
For this new mission Blue Origin will try once more to recover the booster stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.
Industry Competition
The competing companies of billionaires Bezos and Musk are locked in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as NASA began accepting proposals for its planned moon mission, complaining that SpaceX was lagging behind.
The current administration has involved the administration push the agency to accelerate its progress to launch astronauts to the lunar surface amid a race with the Asian nation.
More rivalry between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”
“Additional missions means more ideas in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It isn't a bad thing to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”
