The aerospace company, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to delay the highly anticipated liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday due to adverse weather factors at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Reasons
Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground caused initial delays, followed by thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch closed, leaving mission controllers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.
Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been heating up in recent months.
New Launch Window
To ease airspace congestion amid the US federal government shutdown, the aviation regulator is restricting private space launches from Monday.
After scrubbing the mission, the company said late Sunday that, in coordination with the FAA, it was aiming for another attempt as soon as midweek within a time slot of afternoon hours EST.
Launch Goals
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will carry NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, to study the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of sending people there.
Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a key test of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would represent a major advancement for the firm if successful.
Previous Flight
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was marked as a success, as its cargo reached space and successfully performed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was designed as recoverable, did not stick its touchdown on a platform in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during the return phase.
Landing Attempts
In its second effort Blue Origin will try once more to recover the booster stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.
Industry Competition
The competing companies of tycoons Bezos and Musk are locked in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as NASA began accepting bids for its planned moon mission, complaining that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has seen the government push NASA to accelerate its progress to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface in competition against China.
Increased competition between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to liftoff.”
“Additional missions means more ideas in space,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It can’t be a bad thing to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”
