The aerospace company, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the eagerly awaited liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday because of adverse weather factors at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Causes
Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground led to early setbacks, then came cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window ended, forcing mission controllers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.
Competition between Bezos' firm 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 US federal government shutdown, the aviation regulator is limiting private space launches starting the beginning of the week.
After scrubbing the launch, the company said on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was aiming for another attempt as early as Wednesday within a window of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will carry the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, to study the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of sending people there.
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 successful.
Earlier Mission
The rocket's first launch in January was marked as a achievement, as its cargo achieved orbit and successfully performed experiments.
But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, failed to make its touchdown on a platform in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during descent.
Recovery Efforts
For this new mission Blue Origin will make another attempt to land the first stage.
Thus far, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.
Space Race
The competing companies of tycoons Bezos and Musk are locked in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as the space agency opened up proposals for its planned moon mission, complaining that one company was lagging behind.
The current administration has seen the government pile pressure on NASA to speed up its progress to launch astronauts to the lunar surface amid a race with China.
More rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to liftoff.”
“Additional missions means more ideas in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It isn't a negative to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”
