The aerospace company, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the highly anticipated launch of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend because of unfavorable meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Mission Postponement Reasons
Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground led to early setbacks, then came cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window closed, leaving mission controllers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Competition between Blue Origin and Musk's space company has been intensifying in recent months.
New Launch Window
To relieve airspace congestion amid the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.
Following the cancellation of the launch, the company said on Sunday evening that, working alongside the FAA, it was aiming for another attempt as soon as midweek within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will carry the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, in an effort to study the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of sending people there.
The mission will also act as a key test of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would prove a major advancement for the company if accomplished.
Previous Flight
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was marked as a achievement, as its cargo reached space and completed tests.
But its main rocket section, which was meant to be recoverable, failed to make its landing on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and instead was lost during descent.
Landing Attempts
For this new mission the launch provider will make another attempt to land the booster stage.
Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.
Industry Competition
Rival firms of tycoons Bezos and Musk are locked in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as NASA opened up proposals for its lunar exploration program, complaining that one company was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has involved the administration pile pressure on NASA to speed up its progress to launch astronauts to the Moon amid a race with 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,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It can’t be a negative to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”
