Blue Origin, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the highly anticipated liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday because of adverse meteorological factors at the Florida launch site.
Mission Postponement Reasons
Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground caused initial delays, 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 Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been intensifying in the past few months.
New Launch Window
To relieve airspace congestion amid the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is restricting private space launches starting Monday.
Following the cancellation of the mission, Blue Origin announced late Sunday that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was targeting another attempt as soon as midweek within a time slot of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.
Mission Objectives
When it eventually launches, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will transport NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, to study the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope 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 technical breakthrough for the company if accomplished.
Earlier Mission
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in the start of the year was considered a success, as its payload achieved orbit and successfully performed experiments.
But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be recoverable, failed to make its landing on a platform in the ocean, 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.
Thus far, only SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.
Space Race
The competing companies of tycoons Musk and Bezos are locked in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as NASA began accepting proposals for its planned moon mission, complaining that one company was falling behind schedule.
Donald Trump’s second term has seen the administration pile pressure on the agency to speed up its progress to launch astronauts to the lunar surface amid a race with the Asian nation.
More rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”
“More launches means greater innovation in space,” an ex-agency official said. “It can’t be a negative to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”
