Blue Origin, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the highly anticipated launch of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday due to adverse meteorological factors at the Florida launch site.
Mission Postponement Reasons
Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground led to initial delays, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch ended, forcing mission controllers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Competition between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in the past few months.
New Launch Window
To ease airspace congestion during the US federal government shutdown, the aviation regulator is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs starting Monday.
Following the cancellation of the launch, Blue Origin announced on Sunday evening that, working alongside the FAA, it was targeting another attempt as soon as midweek within a time slot of afternoon hours EST.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will carry NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, in an effort to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of sending people there.
The mission will also serve as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the company if accomplished.
Previous Flight
The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was marked as a achievement, as its cargo reached space and completed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was designed as recoverable, did not stick its landing on a platform in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during descent.
Recovery Efforts
In its second effort the launch provider will try once more to recover the first stage.
Thus far, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.
Industry Competition
Rival firms of billionaires Bezos and Musk are locked in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency began accepting proposals for its planned moon mission, complaining that one company was lagging behind.
The current administration has involved the government pile pressure on NASA to accelerate its progress to launch astronauts to the lunar surface amid a race with the Asian nation.
More rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “expand our options with regard to launch.”
“More launches means more ideas in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It isn't a negative to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”
