The aerospace company, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the highly anticipated liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday due to unfavorable weather factors at the Florida launch site.
Launch Delay Causes
Rainfall and a ground system issue caused early setbacks, followed by thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch ended, leaving managers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.
Competition between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been intensifying in recent months.
New Launch Window
To ease traffic in the skies amid the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is limiting private space launches from the beginning of the week.
After scrubbing the mission, the company said late Sunday that, in coordination with the FAA, it was targeting another attempt as early as midweek within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will carry the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to Mars, in an effort to examine the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of human exploration.
Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a crucial trial of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the company if successful.
Earlier Mission
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in the start of the year was considered a achievement, as its cargo reached space and completed tests.
But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, did not stick its touchdown on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during descent.
Recovery Efforts
For this new mission the launch provider will try once more to recover the booster stage.
Thus far, only SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.
Industry Competition
Rival firms of billionaires Bezos and Musk are engaged in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as NASA began accepting bids for its planned moon mission, complaining that one company was lagging behind.
The current administration has involved the government push the agency to speed up its timeline to launch astronauts to the lunar surface in competition against the Asian nation.
Increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “expand our options with regard to launch.”
“More launches means more ideas in space,” an ex-agency official said. “It can’t be a bad thing to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”
