The aerospace company, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the highly anticipated launch of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend due to adverse weather conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Causes
Precipitation and a ground system issue caused initial delays, then came thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch closed, leaving mission controllers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.
Rivalry between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been intensifying in the past few months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To relieve traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting private space launches from the beginning of the week.
Following the cancellation of the mission, the company said late Sunday that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was targeting another attempt as early as Wednesday within a time slot of afternoon hours EST.
Launch Goals
When it eventually launches, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will transport NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, in an effort to examine the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of human exploration.
The mission will also serve as a crucial trial of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would prove a major advancement for the firm if successful.
Previous Flight
The rocket's first launch in January was marked as a achievement, as its payload reached space and successfully performed tests.
But its first-stage booster, which was designed as reusable, did not stick its landing on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and instead was lost during the return phase.
Recovery Efforts
For this new mission Blue Origin will try once more to land the booster stage.
Thus far, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.
Space Race
The competing companies of billionaires Musk and Bezos are locked in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as NASA opened up proposals for its planned moon mission, noting that SpaceX was lagging behind.
Donald Trump’s second term has seen the government push NASA to accelerate its timeline to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface amid a race with the Asian nation.
More rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”
“Additional missions means greater innovation in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It isn't a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”
