Blue Origin, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to delay the highly anticipated launch of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday because of adverse weather conditions at the Florida launch site.
Launch Delay Reasons
Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground caused early setbacks, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch closed, leaving managers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.
Rivalry between Bezos' firm 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 Federal Aviation Administration is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.
After scrubbing the launch, Blue Origin announced late Sunday that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was targeting a new try as soon as midweek within a time slot of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.
Launch Goals
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will transport NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, to study the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of sending people there.
Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a key test of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the company if accomplished.
Previous Flight
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was marked as a achievement, as its payload achieved orbit and completed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was meant to be recoverable, failed to make its landing on a platform in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during the return phase.
Landing Attempts
For this new mission the launch provider will make another attempt to land the first stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that feat.
Industry Competition
Rival firms of tycoons Bezos and Musk are engaged in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as NASA opened up bids for its planned moon mission, noting that one company was lagging behind.
The current administration has involved the administration pile pressure on the agency to speed up its timeline to launch astronauts to the lunar surface amid a race with the Asian nation.
Increased competition between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”
“Additional missions means greater innovation in space,” an ex-agency official stated. “It can’t be a negative to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”
