Blue Origin, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the highly anticipated liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend because of adverse weather conditions at the Florida launch site.
Launch Delay Reasons
Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground caused early setbacks, then came cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window closed, leaving mission controllers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Competition between Bezos' firm and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been intensifying in the past few months.
New Launch Window
To relieve airspace congestion during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.
Following the cancellation of the mission, Blue Origin announced on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was targeting another attempt as early as Wednesday within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.
Launch Goals
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will transport NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, to examine the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of sending people there.
The mission will also act as a crucial trial of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would represent a major advancement for the firm if successful.
Previous Flight
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was considered a achievement, as its payload reached space and completed tests.
But its first-stage booster, which was designed as reusable, did not stick its touchdown on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and instead was lost during descent.
Landing Attempts
In its second effort the launch provider will make another attempt to recover the booster stage.
Until now, only SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.
Industry Competition
Rival firms of tycoons Bezos and Musk are locked in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as NASA opened up proposals for its lunar exploration program, complaining that one company was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has involved the government pile pressure on the agency to accelerate its timeline to launch astronauts to the lunar surface in competition against China.
Increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”
“Additional missions means more ideas in space,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It isn't a bad thing to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”
