The aerospace company, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to delay the highly anticipated launch of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday because of unfavorable weather factors at the Florida launch site.
Mission Postponement Reasons
Precipitation and a ground system issue led to early setbacks, then came cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window ended, leaving mission controllers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.
Rivalry between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in the past few months.
New Launch Window
To ease airspace congestion amid the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs starting Monday.
Following the cancellation of the mission, Blue Origin said late Sunday that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was targeting a new try as early as midweek within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket 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 its ability to perform reusable rocket landing, which would prove a major advancement for the company if accomplished.
Earlier Mission
The rocket's first launch in January was marked as a success, as its payload reached space and successfully performed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was meant to be reusable, did not stick its touchdown on a ocean-based target in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during descent.
Recovery Efforts
For this new mission Blue Origin will make another attempt to recover the first stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that feat.
Industry Competition
The competing companies of tycoons Musk and Bezos are engaged in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as NASA opened up proposals for its planned moon mission, noting that one company was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has seen the administration push the agency to accelerate its progress to launch astronauts to the lunar surface in competition against the Asian nation.
Increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”
“More launches means more ideas in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It isn't a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”
