The aerospace company, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to delay the highly anticipated launch of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend because of adverse weather factors at the Florida launch site.
Launch Delay Causes
Precipitation and a ground system issue caused early setbacks, then came cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window closed, leaving managers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Competition between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been intensifying in recent months.
New Launch Window
To relieve airspace congestion during the US federal government shutdown, the aviation regulator is limiting private space launches from Monday.
After scrubbing the mission, Blue Origin announced on Sunday evening that, working alongside the FAA, it was targeting a new try as early as midweek within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will carry NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to Mars, to study the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of human exploration.
The mission will also serve as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the company if successful.
Earlier Mission
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was considered a achievement, as its payload achieved orbit and successfully performed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was designed as reusable, did not stick its touchdown on a platform in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during descent.
Landing Attempts
In its second effort the launch provider will make another attempt to recover the booster stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has managed that feat.
Space Race
Rival firms of billionaires Bezos and Musk are locked in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency began accepting bids for its planned moon mission, complaining that SpaceX was lagging behind.
The current administration has seen the government push the agency to speed up its progress to launch astronauts to the Moon amid a race with China.
More rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”
“Additional missions means greater innovation in space,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It isn't a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”
