Blue Origin, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the eagerly awaited launch of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend due to unfavorable weather conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Reasons
Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground caused early setbacks, followed by thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window closed, forcing managers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Competition between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in recent months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To ease airspace congestion during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs starting the beginning of the week.
Following the cancellation of the launch, the company announced on Sunday evening that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was targeting another attempt as soon as Wednesday within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.
Launch Goals
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will carry NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to Mars, to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of human exploration.
Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the company if successful.
Previous Flight
The rocket's first launch in January was marked as a success, as its cargo achieved orbit and completed experiments.
But its first-stage booster, which was designed as reusable, failed to make its landing on a ocean-based target in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during descent.
Recovery Efforts
In its second effort Blue Origin will try once more to recover the first stage.
Until now, only SpaceX has managed that feat.
Space Race
Rival firms of billionaires Musk and Bezos are locked in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as the space agency began accepting proposals for its lunar exploration program, noting that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has seen the government push the agency to accelerate its timeline to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface amid a race with China.
More rivalry between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to liftoff.”
“More launches means greater innovation in space,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It isn't a bad thing to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”
