Blue Origin, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the highly anticipated launch of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday due to adverse meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Mission Postponement Reasons
Rainfall and a ground system issue led to early setbacks, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch ended, leaving managers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.
Rivalry between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been intensifying in recent months.
New Launch Window
To ease airspace congestion amid the US federal government shutdown, the aviation regulator is limiting private space launches from Monday.
After scrubbing the launch, Blue Origin announced on Sunday evening that, working alongside the FAA, it was aiming for another attempt as soon as midweek within a time slot of afternoon hours EST.
Launch Goals
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will transport the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, in an effort to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of sending people there.
The mission will also act as a key test of its ability to perform reusable rocket landing, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the company if accomplished.
Previous Flight
The rocket's first launch in January was considered a achievement, as its cargo reached space and successfully performed experiments.
But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, did not stick its touchdown on a ocean-based target in the Atlantic, 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.
Until now, only SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.
Space Race
Rival firms of tycoons Bezos and Musk are engaged in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as the space agency opened up proposals for its planned moon mission, complaining that one company was falling behind schedule.
Donald Trump’s second term has seen the administration push the agency to speed up its timeline to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface in competition against China.
Increased competition between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to liftoff.”
“More launches means more ideas in space,” an ex-agency official said. “It isn't a negative to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”
