The aerospace company, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the highly anticipated launch of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday because of adverse meteorological factors at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Causes
Rainfall and a ground system issue led to initial delays, followed by thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch ended, forcing mission controllers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Competition between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been intensifying in the past few months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To relieve airspace congestion during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is restricting private space launches from the beginning of the week.
After scrubbing the launch, Blue Origin announced late Sunday that, working alongside the FAA, it was aiming for a new try as soon as Wednesday within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.
Launch Goals
When it eventually launches, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, in an effort to study the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of human exploration.
Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a crucial trial of its ability to perform reusable rocket landing, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the firm if accomplished.
Previous Flight
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in the start of the year was considered a success, as its payload reached space and completed experiments.
But its first-stage booster, which was designed as recoverable, failed to make its touchdown on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during descent.
Landing Attempts
In its second effort Blue Origin will try once more to recover the booster stage.
Until now, only SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.
Industry Competition
The competing companies of billionaires Bezos and Musk are engaged in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as NASA opened up proposals for its planned moon mission, noting that one company was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has seen the government push the agency to accelerate its progress to launch astronauts to the lunar surface in competition against China.
Increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “expand our options with regard to launch.”
“More launches means more ideas in space,” an ex-agency official said. “It can’t be a bad thing to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”
