The aerospace company, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the eagerly awaited launch of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday because of adverse meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Mission Postponement Reasons
Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground led to early setbacks, then came cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch ended, leaving managers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been intensifying in recent months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To ease traffic in the skies amid the US federal government shutdown, the aviation regulator is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs from the beginning of the week.
Following the cancellation of the launch, the company said late Sunday that, in coordination with the FAA, it was targeting another attempt as early as midweek within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will transport NASA’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 its ability to perform reusable rocket landing, which would represent a major advancement for the firm if accomplished.
Previous Flight
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was marked as a success, as its payload reached space and successfully performed tests.
But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be recoverable, failed to make its touchdown on a platform in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during the return phase.
Landing Attempts
For this new mission Blue Origin will try once more to land the first stage.
Until now, only SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.
Space Race
The competing companies of billionaires Bezos and Musk are locked in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as NASA opened up proposals for its planned moon mission, noting that one company was falling behind schedule.
Donald Trump’s second term has seen the government push the agency to speed up its progress to send a crewed mission 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 space,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It can’t be a negative to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”
