The aerospace company, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the highly anticipated launch of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend due to adverse meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Mission Postponement Causes
Rainfall and a ground system issue led to early setbacks, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window ended, forcing mission controllers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.
Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been intensifying in recent months.
New Launch Window
To ease traffic in the skies during the US federal government shutdown, the aviation regulator is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from the beginning of the week.
Following the cancellation of the launch, Blue Origin announced on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was aiming for a new try as early as midweek within a time slot of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.
Mission Objectives
When it eventually launches, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, to examine the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of human exploration.
The mission will also serve as a key test of its ability to perform reusable rocket landing, which would prove a major advancement for the firm if successful.
Earlier Mission
The rocket's first launch in January was marked as a achievement, as its cargo reached space and successfully performed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was designed as reusable, did not stick its landing 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 land the first stage.
Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.
Industry Competition
The competing companies of tycoons Musk and Bezos are locked in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as NASA opened up proposals for its lunar exploration program, complaining that one company was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has involved the government push the agency to speed up its progress to launch astronauts to the Moon amid a race with China.
More rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”
“Additional missions means greater innovation in orbit,” an ex-agency official said. “It can’t be a bad thing to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”
