Blue Origin, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the highly anticipated liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday because of adverse meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Mission Postponement Causes
Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground led to initial delays, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window ended, forcing managers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.
Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been intensifying in the past few months.
New Launch Window
To ease traffic in the skies amid the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is limiting private space launches from the beginning of the week.
Following the cancellation of the launch, the company said on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was targeting a new try as soon as Wednesday within a time slot of afternoon hours EST.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will transport the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to Mars, to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of sending people there.
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.
Earlier Mission
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in the start of the year was considered a success, as its payload reached space and successfully performed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was designed as reusable, failed to make its landing on a platform in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.
Recovery Efforts
In its second effort Blue Origin will try once more to recover the first stage.
Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.
Space Race
Rival firms of tycoons Bezos and Musk are locked in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as the space agency opened up proposals for its lunar exploration program, complaining that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
Donald Trump’s second term has involved the administration pile pressure on the agency to accelerate its progress to send a crewed mission to the Moon in competition against China.
Increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “expand our options with regard to liftoff.”
“More launches means more ideas in space,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It can’t be a bad thing to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”
