The aerospace company, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the eagerly awaited liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend because of adverse meteorological conditions at the Florida launch site.
Mission Postponement Reasons
Rainfall and a ground system issue caused early setbacks, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch closed, leaving mission controllers 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.
New Launch Window
To relieve traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs from the beginning of the week.
Following the cancellation of the launch, the company said on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was aiming for a new try as soon as Wednesday within a time slot of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.
Launch Goals
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, in an effort to examine the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of sending people there.
Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a crucial trial of its ability to perform reusable rocket landing, which would prove a major advancement for the company if accomplished.
Earlier Mission
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in the start of the year was marked as a achievement, as its cargo reached space and successfully performed experiments.
But its first-stage booster, which was designed as recoverable, failed to make its touchdown on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during descent.
Landing Attempts
For this new mission Blue Origin will try once more to recover the first stage.
Thus far, only SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.
Space Race
The competing companies of tycoons Bezos and Musk are engaged in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as NASA began accepting bids for its planned moon mission, noting that one company was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has seen the administration push the agency to speed up its progress 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 liftoff.”
“Additional missions means more ideas in space,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It isn't a bad thing to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”
