The aerospace company, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the eagerly awaited liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday because of unfavorable meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Reasons
Precipitation and a ground system issue led to initial delays, then came thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window closed, leaving managers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Competition between Bezos' firm and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in recent months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To relieve traffic in the skies amid the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting private space launches starting Monday.
Following the cancellation of the mission, Blue Origin said on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the FAA, it was aiming for another attempt as soon as midweek within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.
Mission Objectives
When it eventually launches, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will carry NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to Mars, to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of sending people there.
Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a key test of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the company if successful.
Previous Flight
The rocket's first launch in January was marked as a achievement, as its payload reached space and successfully performed experiments.
But its first-stage booster, which was designed as recoverable, did not stick its touchdown on a platform in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during descent.
Recovery Efforts
For this new mission the launch provider will try once more to land the booster stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that feat.
Space Race
The competing companies of tycoons Musk and Bezos are engaged in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency opened up bids for its lunar exploration program, noting that SpaceX was lagging behind.
Donald Trump’s second term has involved the administration push NASA to accelerate its progress to launch astronauts to the lunar surface in competition against China.
Increased competition between the two firms 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 the competitor, even not in the lead.”
