Blue Origin, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the eagerly awaited liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend because of unfavorable weather factors at Cape Canaveral.
Mission Postponement Reasons
Precipitation and a ground system issue caused initial delays, then came thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window closed, leaving mission controllers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Competition between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been intensifying in recent months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To ease traffic in the skies amid the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs starting Monday.
After scrubbing the mission, the company announced late Sunday that, in coordination with the FAA, it was targeting a new try as early as Wednesday within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.
Launch Goals
When it eventually launches, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will transport NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to Mars, to examine the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of sending people there.
The mission will also act as a key test of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the firm if successful.
Previous Flight
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in the start of the year was marked as a success, as its payload reached space and successfully performed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was meant to be recoverable, failed to make its landing on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during descent.
Landing Attempts
For this new mission Blue Origin will make another attempt to recover the first stage.
Thus far, only SpaceX has managed that feat.
Industry Competition
The competing companies of tycoons Musk and Bezos are locked in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as the space agency began accepting proposals for its lunar exploration program, complaining that one company was falling behind schedule.
Donald Trump’s second term has seen the administration pile pressure on NASA to accelerate its progress to send a crewed mission to the Moon amid a race with the Asian nation.
Increased competition between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to liftoff.”
“More launches means greater innovation in space,” an ex-agency official stated. “It can’t be a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”
