The aerospace company, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the eagerly awaited liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend because of adverse meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Causes
Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground caused early setbacks, followed by thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window closed, forcing mission controllers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.
Competition between Blue Origin and Musk's space company has been intensifying in the past few months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To ease traffic in the skies amid the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs starting Monday.
After scrubbing the mission, Blue Origin said on Sunday evening that, working alongside the FAA, it was aiming for a new try as soon as Wednesday within a window of afternoon hours EST.
Launch Goals
When it eventually launches, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will transport NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to Mars, 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 company if successful.
Earlier Mission
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was marked as a success, as its cargo reached space and successfully performed experiments.
But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, failed to make its landing on a platform in the ocean, and instead was lost during the return phase.
Recovery Efforts
In its second effort Blue Origin will try once more to land the first stage.
Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that feat.
Industry Competition
The competing companies of tycoons Bezos and Musk are locked in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as NASA began accepting bids for its lunar exploration program, complaining that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has seen the administration pile pressure on the agency to accelerate its progress to send a crewed mission to the Moon in competition against the Asian nation.
More rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to liftoff.”
“Additional missions means more ideas in orbit,” an ex-agency official said. “It can’t be a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”
