Blue Origin, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to delay the eagerly awaited launch of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday because of adverse meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Reasons
Rainfall and a ground system issue led to initial delays, then came cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch ended, leaving mission controllers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Competition between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been heating up in recent months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To ease traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is restricting private space launches from Monday.
After scrubbing the launch, Blue Origin announced on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was targeting another attempt as soon as Wednesday within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.
Launch Goals
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will transport NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to Mars, to study the Martian atmospheric past 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 technical breakthrough for the company if successful.
Earlier Mission
The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was marked as a achievement, as its payload achieved orbit and successfully performed experiments.
But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, did not stick its touchdown on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and instead was lost during the return phase.
Recovery Efforts
For this new mission the launch provider will try once more to recover the first stage.
Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has managed that feat.
Industry Competition
The competing companies of billionaires Musk and Bezos are engaged in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency began accepting bids for its planned moon mission, complaining that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
Donald Trump’s second term has seen the government push the agency to speed up its timeline to launch astronauts to the Moon amid a race with China.
More rivalry between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to liftoff.”
“More launches means more ideas in space,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It can’t be a negative to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”
