Blue Origin, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the eagerly awaited launch of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday because of adverse meteorological conditions at the Florida launch site.
Mission Postponement Reasons
Rainfall and a ground system issue caused early setbacks, then came cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch ended, leaving mission controllers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Rivalry between Blue Origin and Musk's space company has been heating up in recent months.
New Launch Window
To ease traffic in the skies amid the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.
Following the cancellation of the launch, the company said on Sunday evening that, working alongside the FAA, it was targeting another attempt as soon as Wednesday within a time slot of afternoon hours EST.
Launch Goals
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will carry the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to Mars, to study the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of sending people there.
Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a key test of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would represent a major advancement for the company if accomplished.
Earlier Mission
The rocket's first launch in January was marked as a achievement, as its cargo achieved orbit and successfully performed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was meant to be recoverable, did not stick its landing on a platform in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during the return phase.
Landing Attempts
In its second effort the launch provider will make another attempt to land the booster stage.
Until now, only SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.
Space Race
The competing companies of billionaires Musk and Bezos are locked in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as NASA began accepting bids for its lunar exploration program, complaining that SpaceX was lagging behind.
Donald Trump’s second term has involved the government pile pressure on NASA to speed up its progress to send a crewed mission to the Moon in competition against the Asian nation.
More rivalry between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to liftoff.”
“More launches means greater innovation in orbit,” an ex-agency official stated. “It can’t be a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”
