The aerospace company, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to delay the highly anticipated launch of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend because of unfavorable weather factors at Cape Canaveral.
Mission Postponement Causes
Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground caused initial delays, then came cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch closed, forcing mission controllers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Competition between Bezos' firm and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in the past few months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To ease airspace congestion amid the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from the beginning of the week.
Following the cancellation of the launch, the company announced on Sunday evening that, working alongside the FAA, it was aiming for a new try as early as midweek within a window of afternoon hours EST.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will transport the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, to study the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of human exploration.
The mission will also act as a key test of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the company if accomplished.
Earlier Mission
The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was marked as a success, as its cargo reached space and successfully performed tests.
But its main rocket section, which was meant to be recoverable, failed to make its touchdown on a ocean-based target in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during descent.
Landing Attempts
In its second effort the launch provider will make another attempt to recover the booster stage.
Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that feat.
Space Race
The competing companies of tycoons Bezos and Musk are engaged in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as the space agency opened up proposals for its lunar exploration program, complaining that one company was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has involved the government push the agency to accelerate its progress to launch astronauts to the lunar surface amid a race with the Asian nation.
More rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”
“More launches means greater innovation in space,” an ex-agency official stated. “It isn't a negative to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”
