Blue Origin, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to delay the highly anticipated liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday due to adverse meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Mission Postponement Causes
Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground caused initial delays, followed by thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window closed, leaving mission controllers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been intensifying in recent months.
New Launch Window
To relieve traffic in the skies amid the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from the beginning of the week.
After scrubbing the mission, the company said late Sunday that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was aiming for a new try as soon as midweek within a window of afternoon hours EST.
Launch Goals
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will carry the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, in an effort to study the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of human exploration.
Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a key test of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the company if accomplished.
Previous Flight
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in the start of the year was considered a success, as its payload reached space and completed tests.
But its main rocket section, which was designed as reusable, failed to make its landing on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.
Landing Attempts
For this new mission Blue Origin will make another attempt to land the booster stage.
Until now, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.
Industry Competition
Rival firms of tycoons Bezos and Musk are engaged in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as NASA began accepting bids for its lunar exploration program, complaining that one company was lagging behind.
The current administration has seen the administration pile pressure on the agency to accelerate its timeline to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface amid a race with China.
Increased competition between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to liftoff.”
“More launches means greater innovation in space,” an ex-agency official stated. “It isn't a bad thing to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”
