The aerospace company, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the highly anticipated liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday due to unfavorable meteorological conditions at the Florida launch site.
Mission Postponement Causes
Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground caused early setbacks, then came thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window ended, leaving mission controllers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in recent months.
New Launch Window
To ease traffic in the skies amid the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is limiting private space launches from Monday.
After scrubbing the mission, Blue Origin said late Sunday that, in coordination with the FAA, it was aiming for another attempt as soon as midweek within a window of afternoon hours EST.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will carry the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, to study the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of sending people there.
Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would prove a major advancement for the firm if successful.
Previous Flight
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was considered 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 ocean, and instead was lost during descent.
Recovery Efforts
In its second effort Blue Origin will make another attempt to land the first stage.
Until now, only SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.
Industry Competition
Rival firms of billionaires Musk and Bezos are locked in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency opened up proposals for its planned moon mission, noting that SpaceX was lagging behind.
The current administration has seen the government push the agency to accelerate its progress to send a crewed mission to the Moon in competition against China.
More rivalry between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to launch.”
“Additional missions means more ideas in space,” an ex-agency official stated. “It isn't a negative to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”
