The aerospace company, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the eagerly awaited liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday due to unfavorable meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Mission Postponement Reasons
Rainfall and a ground system issue caused early setbacks, then came cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window ended, forcing managers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been heating up in recent months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To ease airspace congestion during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is limiting private space launches starting the beginning of the week.
After scrubbing the launch, the company said on Sunday evening that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was targeting another attempt as early as Wednesday within a window of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.
Launch Goals
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will transport NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of sending people there.
The mission will also act as a key test of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the company if successful.
Previous Flight
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in the start of the year was considered a achievement, as its payload reached space and successfully performed experiments.
But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, failed to make its landing on a ocean-based target in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during the return phase.
Recovery Efforts
In its second effort Blue Origin will try once more to land the booster stage.
Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that feat.
Industry Competition
Rival firms of billionaires Bezos and Musk are engaged in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as NASA opened up bids for its lunar exploration program, complaining that SpaceX was lagging behind.
The current administration has involved the administration push the agency to speed up its progress to send a crewed mission to the Moon in competition against China.
Increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to liftoff.”
“Additional missions means greater innovation in space,” an ex-agency official said. “It can’t be a negative to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”
