Blue Origin, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the highly anticipated launch of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend because of adverse meteorological conditions at the Florida launch site.
Launch Delay Causes
Precipitation and a ground system issue led to early setbacks, followed by thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window ended, forcing mission controllers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.
Competition between Bezos' firm and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been intensifying in recent months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To ease traffic in the skies amid the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from the beginning of the week.
After scrubbing the mission, the company announced late Sunday that, working alongside the FAA, it was aiming for another attempt as soon as Wednesday within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will carry NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, to study the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of human exploration.
The mission will also act as a key test of its ability to perform reusable rocket landing, which would prove a major advancement for the firm if successful.
Earlier Mission
The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was considered a success, as its cargo achieved orbit and successfully performed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was meant to be recoverable, failed to make its landing on a platform in the ocean, and instead was lost during descent.
Recovery Efforts
For this new mission the launch provider will try once more to land the first stage.
Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that feat.
Space Race
The competing companies of tycoons Musk and Bezos are locked in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as NASA began accepting bids for its lunar exploration program, noting that SpaceX was lagging behind.
The current administration has involved the government push the agency to accelerate its progress to launch astronauts to the Moon amid a race with China.
Increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to liftoff.”
“More launches means greater innovation in orbit,” an ex-agency official said. “It can’t be a negative to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”
