The aerospace company, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the eagerly awaited launch of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend because of adverse weather factors at the Florida launch site.
Launch Delay Reasons
Precipitation and a ground system issue led to early setbacks, then came cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch closed, forcing mission controllers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.
Competition between Bezos' firm and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in the past few months.
New Launch Window
To ease airspace congestion amid the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting private space launches starting Monday.
After scrubbing the launch, the company said late Sunday that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was targeting a new try as early as Wednesday within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.
Mission Objectives
When it eventually launches, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will carry the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, to examine the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of sending people there.
Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would represent a major advancement for the firm if accomplished.
Previous Flight
The rocket's first launch in January was marked as a success, as its payload reached space and successfully performed experiments.
But its first-stage booster, which was designed as reusable, did not stick its landing on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.
Landing Attempts
For this new mission the launch provider will try once more to recover the booster stage.
Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that feat.
Industry Competition
The competing companies of billionaires 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, noting that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has involved the administration pile pressure on the agency to speed up its timeline to send a crewed mission to the Moon amid a race with the Asian nation.
More rivalry between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to liftoff.”
“More launches means more ideas in orbit,” an ex-agency official said. “It can’t be a negative to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”
