Blue Origin, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to delay the eagerly awaited launch of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend because of adverse meteorological factors at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Causes
Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground caused initial delays, followed by thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window closed, forcing managers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in the past few months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To ease traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting private space launches starting the beginning of the week.
After scrubbing the mission, the company said on Sunday evening that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was targeting another attempt as soon as Wednesday within a window of afternoon hours EST.
Launch Goals
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of sending people there.
Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the firm if successful.
Previous Flight
The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was marked as a achievement, as its payload achieved orbit and completed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was meant to be reusable, did not stick its landing on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and instead was lost during descent.
Recovery Efforts
For this new mission the launch provider 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 locked in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as NASA began accepting bids for its planned moon mission, complaining that one company was lagging behind.
Donald Trump’s second term has involved the administration pile pressure on the agency to speed up its timeline to launch astronauts to the Moon amid a race with the Asian nation.
Increased competition between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to liftoff.”
“Additional missions means more ideas in space,” an ex-agency official said. “It can’t be a negative to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”
