The aerospace company, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the highly anticipated liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday because of adverse weather factors at Cape Canaveral.
Mission Postponement Reasons
Rainfall and a ground system issue caused early setbacks, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window ended, forcing managers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.
Competition between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up 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 starting the beginning of the week.
After scrubbing the launch, the company said late Sunday that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was targeting a new try as early as Wednesday within a window of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will transport the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of human exploration.
The mission will also act as a key test of its ability to perform reusable rocket landing, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the company if successful.
Earlier Mission
The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was marked as a achievement, as its payload reached space and successfully performed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was designed as recoverable, did not stick its touchdown on a ocean-based target 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 first stage.
Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that feat.
Space Race
Rival firms of tycoons Bezos and Musk are engaged in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency opened up proposals for its planned moon mission, complaining that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
Donald Trump’s second term has seen the government push NASA to accelerate its timeline to launch astronauts to the Moon in competition against the Asian nation.
More rivalry between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”
“More launches means greater innovation in orbit,” an ex-agency official said. “It isn't a negative to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”
