The aerospace company, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to delay the highly anticipated liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend due to adverse meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Mission Postponement Causes
Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground caused initial delays, then came cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window closed, forcing mission controllers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.
Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been intensifying in recent months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To ease airspace congestion during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is restricting private space launches from the beginning of the week.
After scrubbing the mission, Blue Origin announced late Sunday that, in coordination with the FAA, it was targeting a new try as soon as midweek within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, in an effort to study the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of sending people there.
Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a key test of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would prove a major advancement for the company if successful.
Earlier Mission
The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was marked as a success, as its payload achieved orbit and successfully performed tests.
But its main rocket section, which was designed as recoverable, did not stick its landing on a platform in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during descent.
Recovery Efforts
For this new mission Blue Origin will make another attempt to recover the first stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.
Industry Competition
Rival firms of tycoons Bezos and Musk are locked in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as the space agency opened up bids for its planned moon mission, noting that one company was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has seen the government pile pressure on the agency to accelerate its timeline to launch astronauts to the Moon in competition against China.
Increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”
“More launches means more ideas in space,” an ex-agency official said. “It isn't a negative to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”
