Blue Origin, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the highly anticipated launch of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday due to unfavorable weather factors at Cape Canaveral.
Mission Postponement Reasons
Precipitation and a ground system issue led to early setbacks, then came cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window ended, leaving managers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in the past few months.
New Launch Window
To relieve airspace congestion during the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting private space launches from the beginning of the week.
Following the cancellation of the launch, Blue Origin announced late Sunday that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was targeting a new try as early as Wednesday within a window of afternoon hours EST.
Launch Goals
When it eventually launches, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will carry the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, in an effort to examine 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 reusable rocket landing, which would prove a major advancement for the firm if successful.
Previous Flight
The rocket's first launch in January was marked as a achievement, as its cargo reached space and successfully performed tests.
But its main rocket section, which was designed as reusable, failed to make its touchdown on a platform in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during descent.
Recovery Efforts
For this new mission the launch provider will try once more to land the booster stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.
Space Race
Rival firms of tycoons Musk and Bezos are engaged in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as NASA opened up bids for its planned moon mission, complaining that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
Donald Trump’s second term has involved the administration push the agency to speed up its progress to send a crewed mission to the Moon in competition against the Asian nation.
More rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”
“More launches means more ideas in space,” an ex-agency official said. “It isn't a bad thing to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”
