The aerospace company, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the highly anticipated launch of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday because of unfavorable meteorological conditions at the Florida launch site.
Launch Delay Reasons
Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground led to initial delays, then came thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch closed, leaving managers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.
Rivalry between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in the past few months.
New Launch Window
To ease traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs starting the beginning of the week.
After scrubbing the launch, Blue Origin said on Sunday evening that, working alongside the FAA, it was targeting another attempt as early as Wednesday within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.
Launch Goals
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, to examine the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of sending people there.
The mission will also serve as a key test of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would represent 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 achieved orbit and successfully performed tests.
But its main rocket section, which was meant to be recoverable, did not stick its touchdown on a ocean-based target in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during the return phase.
Recovery Efforts
In its second effort Blue Origin will try once more to recover the booster stage.
Thus far, only SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.
Industry Competition
The competing companies of tycoons Musk and Bezos are locked in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as the space agency opened up proposals for its planned moon mission, noting that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has seen the government push the agency to speed up its progress to send a crewed mission to the Moon in competition against the Asian nation.
Increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “expand our options with regard to liftoff.”
“More launches means greater innovation in space,” an ex-agency official said. “It can’t be a bad thing to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”
