The aerospace company, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the highly anticipated launch of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday because of adverse meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Reasons
Rainfall and a ground system issue led to early setbacks, then came cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window ended, forcing mission controllers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.
Competition between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been intensifying in the past few months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To ease traffic in the skies amid the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting private space launches from the beginning of the week.
After scrubbing the launch, Blue Origin announced on Sunday evening that, working alongside the FAA, it was targeting another attempt as early as Wednesday within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will transport the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, in an effort to study 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 reusable rocket landing, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the company if successful.
Previous Flight
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was marked as a achievement, as its cargo reached space and completed experiments.
But its first-stage booster, which was designed as recoverable, did not stick its touchdown on a platform in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.
Landing Attempts
In its second effort the launch provider will try once more to land the booster stage.
Until now, only SpaceX has managed that feat.
Space Race
Rival firms of billionaires Musk and Bezos are engaged in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as NASA began accepting bids for its lunar exploration program, noting that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
Donald Trump’s second term has involved the government pile pressure on the agency to speed up its progress to launch astronauts to the Moon in competition against the Asian nation.
Increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “expand our options with regard to launch.”
“Additional missions means greater innovation in orbit,” an ex-agency official stated. “It isn't a negative to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”
