Blue Origin, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the eagerly awaited liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend due to unfavorable meteorological factors at Cape Canaveral.
Mission Postponement Reasons
Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground caused initial delays, followed by thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window ended, leaving managers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.
Competition between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been heating up in the past few months.
New Launch Window
To relieve airspace congestion amid the US federal government shutdown, the aviation regulator is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs starting Monday.
After scrubbing the mission, the company said late Sunday that, working alongside the FAA, it was targeting another attempt as early as Wednesday within a window of afternoon hours EST.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will carry the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, in an effort to study the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of human exploration.
The mission will also act as a key test of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would represent a major advancement for the firm if successful.
Earlier Mission
The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was considered a achievement, as its payload reached space and completed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was designed as reusable, failed to make its touchdown on a ocean-based target in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.
Landing Attempts
In its second effort the launch provider will try once more to land the first stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.
Space Race
Rival firms of billionaires Musk and Bezos are engaged in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as NASA opened up proposals for its planned moon mission, noting that SpaceX was lagging behind.
The current administration has seen the administration push NASA to speed up its timeline to launch astronauts to the Moon amid a race with China.
Increased competition between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”
“Additional missions means greater innovation in space,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It isn't a negative to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”
