Blue Origin, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the highly anticipated liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend due to adverse meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Reasons
Rainfall and a ground system issue led to initial delays, then came thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch ended, leaving mission controllers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.
Competition between Blue Origin and Musk's space company has been intensifying in the past few months.
New Launch Window
To relieve traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.
Following the cancellation of the launch, Blue Origin said late Sunday that, in coordination with the FAA, it was aiming for another attempt as soon as midweek within a time slot of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will transport NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to Mars, in an effort to study the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of human exploration.
Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a crucial trial of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the company if successful.
Previous Flight
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was marked as a achievement, as its cargo achieved orbit and successfully performed tests.
But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be recoverable, did not stick its touchdown on a platform in the ocean, and instead was lost during the return phase.
Recovery Efforts
In its second effort Blue Origin will make another attempt to recover the booster stage.
Thus far, only SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.
Industry Competition
Rival firms of tycoons Musk and Bezos are engaged in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as NASA opened up proposals for its lunar exploration program, complaining that one company was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has involved the administration pile pressure on NASA to accelerate its progress to launch astronauts to the lunar surface in competition against the Asian nation.
More rivalry between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to liftoff.”
“More launches means more ideas in space,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It isn't a bad thing to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”
