Blue Origin, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the eagerly awaited liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend due to unfavorable weather conditions at the Florida launch site.
Mission Postponement Reasons
Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground led to initial delays, then came cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window closed, leaving managers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in the past few months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To relieve airspace congestion during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.
After scrubbing the launch, the company announced late Sunday that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was targeting a new try as soon as midweek within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.
Mission Objectives
When it eventually launches, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, to study the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of human exploration.
Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a crucial trial of its ability to perform 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 considered a success, as its cargo 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 descent.
Landing Attempts
For this new mission the launch provider will try once more to land the first stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.
Space Race
Rival firms of billionaires Musk and Bezos are locked in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency opened up bids for its lunar exploration program, noting that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has involved the administration push NASA to speed up its progress to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface in competition against China.
Increased competition between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to liftoff.”
“More launches means greater innovation in space,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It can’t be a bad thing to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”
