Blue Origin, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the highly anticipated launch of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday due to unfavorable meteorological conditions at the Florida launch site.
Launch Delay Causes
Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground caused initial delays, then came cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window ended, leaving managers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Competition between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in the past few months.
New Launch Window
To ease traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting private space launches from the beginning of the week.
After scrubbing the mission, the company said on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was aiming for another attempt as soon as Wednesday within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.
Mission Objectives
When it eventually launches, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will carry the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, in an effort to examine the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of human exploration.
The mission will also serve as a key test of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would prove a major advancement for the firm if successful.
Previous Flight
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was marked as a achievement, as its payload reached space and completed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was designed as recoverable, did not stick its landing on a platform in the ocean, and instead was lost during descent.
Landing Attempts
In its second effort the launch provider will try once more to land the booster stage.
Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that feat.
Space Race
The competing companies of tycoons Musk and Bezos are locked in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as the space agency opened up proposals for its lunar exploration program, complaining that SpaceX was lagging behind.
Donald Trump’s second term has seen the government push NASA to speed up its progress to launch astronauts to the Moon amid a race with China.
Increased competition 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 the competitor, even trailing behind.”
