The aerospace company, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the highly anticipated liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday due to adverse meteorological conditions at the Florida launch site.
Launch Delay Reasons
Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground led to initial delays, then came cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch ended, leaving managers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Competition between Bezos' firm and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been intensifying in the past few months.
New Launch Window
To relieve traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting private space launches starting Monday.
Following the cancellation of the launch, the company announced late Sunday that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was targeting another attempt as soon as midweek within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.
Launch Goals
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, in an effort to study the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of human exploration.
Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a crucial trial of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the company if successful.
Earlier Mission
The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was considered a achievement, as its cargo achieved orbit and successfully performed experiments.
But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be recoverable, did not stick its touchdown on a platform in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during descent.
Landing Attempts
For this new mission Blue Origin will try once more to land the booster stage.
Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.
Space Race
The competing companies of billionaires Musk and Bezos are engaged in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as NASA began accepting proposals for its lunar exploration program, complaining that one company was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has involved the government pile pressure on the agency to accelerate its timeline to launch astronauts to the Moon amid a race with China.
Increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “expand our options with regard to liftoff.”
“More launches means greater innovation in space,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It isn't a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”
