The aerospace company, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to delay the eagerly awaited launch of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday because of unfavorable meteorological factors at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Reasons
Precipitation and a ground system issue caused early setbacks, followed by thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window ended, forcing managers to push back 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 ease traffic in the skies amid the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting private space launches from the beginning of the week.
Following the cancellation of the mission, the company said late Sunday that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was targeting another attempt as early as Wednesday within a time slot of afternoon hours EST.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will carry the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of human exploration.
Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a key test of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the company if successful.
Earlier Mission
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was considered a success, as its payload reached space and successfully performed tests.
But its first-stage booster, which was designed as reusable, did not stick its touchdown on a ocean-based target in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during descent.
Landing Attempts
For this new mission Blue Origin will make another attempt to recover the first stage.
Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.
Industry Competition
Rival firms of tycoons Bezos and Musk are engaged in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency began accepting proposals for its planned moon mission, complaining that one company was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has seen the government pile pressure on NASA to accelerate its timeline to send a crewed mission to the Moon in competition against China.
Increased competition between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to liftoff.”
“Additional missions means greater innovation in space,” an ex-agency official said. “It can’t be a bad thing to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”
