Blue Origin, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the eagerly awaited liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday because of unfavorable meteorological factors at Cape Canaveral.
Mission Postponement Causes
Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground led to early setbacks, then came cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch ended, forcing mission controllers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.
Rivalry between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been intensifying in the past few months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To ease airspace congestion amid the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting private space launches from Monday.
After scrubbing the mission, the company said late Sunday that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was targeting another attempt as soon as midweek within a window of afternoon hours EST.
Mission Objectives
When it eventually launches, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, in an effort to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of human exploration.
The mission will also act as a key test of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would represent a major advancement for the firm if accomplished.
Earlier Mission
The rocket's first launch in January was marked as a success, as its payload achieved orbit and completed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was meant to be recoverable, failed to make its touchdown on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and ended up destroyed 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 tycoons Musk and Bezos are engaged in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency opened up proposals for its lunar exploration program, complaining that SpaceX was lagging behind.
The current administration has involved the administration pile pressure on the agency to speed up its progress to launch astronauts to the Moon in competition against China.
More rivalry between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to launch.”
“Additional missions means more ideas in orbit,” an ex-agency official stated. “It isn't a negative to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”
