The aerospace company, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the highly anticipated launch of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend because of unfavorable meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Causes
Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground caused initial delays, then came thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch ended, forcing managers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been intensifying in the past few months.
New Launch Window
To relieve airspace congestion amid the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting private space launches from Monday.
After scrubbing the launch, Blue Origin said late Sunday that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was aiming for another attempt as early as Wednesday within a time slot of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.
Launch Goals
When it eventually launches, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will carry the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, in an effort to study the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of sending people there.
The mission will also serve as a crucial trial of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the company if successful.
Previous Flight
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was considered a achievement, as its cargo reached space and completed tests.
But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be recoverable, failed to make its landing on a platform in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during descent.
Landing Attempts
In its second effort Blue Origin will make another attempt to recover the booster stage.
Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.
Space Race
The competing companies of tycoons Bezos and Musk are locked in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as NASA began accepting proposals for its lunar exploration program, complaining that one company was falling behind schedule.
Donald Trump’s second term has involved the government pile pressure on NASA to accelerate its timeline to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface amid a race with China.
Increased competition between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to launch.”
“More launches means more ideas in orbit,” an ex-agency official said. “It can’t be a negative to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”
