The aerospace company, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the eagerly awaited liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday because of unfavorable meteorological factors at the Florida launch site.
Launch Delay Causes
Precipitation and a ground system issue led to initial delays, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch closed, leaving mission controllers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.
Competition between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been intensifying in the past few months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To relieve airspace congestion during the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting private space launches from Monday.
After scrubbing the mission, Blue Origin said on Sunday evening that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was targeting a new try as soon as midweek within a window of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.
Launch Goals
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will transport the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, in an effort to study the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of human exploration.
Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a key test of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the company if accomplished.
Earlier Mission
The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was marked as a achievement, as its cargo reached space and successfully performed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was designed as reusable, failed to make its landing on a platform in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.
Landing Attempts
For this new mission Blue Origin will make another attempt to recover the first stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has managed that feat.
Space Race
The competing companies of billionaires Musk and Bezos are locked in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as NASA began accepting bids for its planned moon mission, noting that one company was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has involved the government push NASA to speed up its progress to launch astronauts to the Moon in competition against the Asian nation.
More rivalry between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to liftoff.”
“More launches means greater innovation in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It can’t be a negative to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”
