The aerospace company, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the eagerly awaited launch of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday because of adverse meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Reasons
Precipitation and a ground system issue led to early setbacks, then came thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window ended, forcing mission controllers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.
Rivalry between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been intensifying in the past few months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To ease traffic in the skies during the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.
Following the cancellation of the launch, the company said late Sunday that, in coordination with the FAA, it was aiming for a new try as early as Wednesday within a time slot of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.
Mission Objectives
When it eventually launches, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will carry NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, in an effort 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 booster recovery, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the firm if accomplished.
Previous Flight
The rocket's first launch in January was marked as a success, as its payload achieved orbit and successfully performed experiments.
But its first-stage booster, which was designed as recoverable, failed to make its touchdown on a platform in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during descent.
Landing Attempts
For this new mission the launch provider will make another attempt to recover the first stage.
Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has managed that feat.
Industry Competition
Rival firms of tycoons Bezos and Musk are locked in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as NASA opened up proposals for its planned moon mission, complaining that one company was lagging behind.
Donald Trump’s second term has involved the administration push the agency to speed up its progress to send a crewed mission to the Moon amid a race with the Asian nation.
Increased competition between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”
“More launches means greater innovation in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It can’t be a negative to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”
