Blue Origin, the space company owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the expected launch of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday due to adverse weather conditions at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Rain and problems with the ground system caused delays, followed by cumulus clouds as the 88-minute launch window closed, leaving managers with the only option to delay the rocket's planned second flight. Competition between Blue Origin and Elon Musk's SpaceX has been heating up in recent months.
To ease airspace congestion during the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting commercial rocket launches starting Monday. But after canceling the launch, Blue Origin said late Sunday that, in coordination with the FAA, it plans to make another attempt as early as Wednesday between 2:50 and 4:17 p.m. Eastern Time.
The 322f (98 meter) long New Glenn rocket will be tasked with sending US space agency NASA's twin Escapade spacecraft to Mars, with the goal of studying the Red Planet's climate history with the possible hope of human exploration.
Blue Origin's launch should also serve as a key test of whether it can achieve recovery of the launch vehicle, which if successful would represent a technical breakthrough for the company.
New Glenn's first flight in January was hailed as a success as its payload reached orbit and successfully tested. But its first stage booster, which was supposed to be reusable, did not land on a platform in the Atlantic and was instead lost during descent.
In the second attempt, Blue Origin will once again try to restore the booster stage. So far, only Musk's company SpaceX has succeeded.
Billionaires Musk and Bezos' rival companies are locked in a commercial space race that recently intensified when NASA opened bids for a planned lunar mission, complaining that SpaceX was falling behind.
During Donald Trump's second term in the White House, the administration pressured NASA to speed up the process of sending a manned mission to the Moon amid a race with China.
after promoting the newsletter
Mason Peck, a Cornell University aeronautics professor and former NASA chief technologist, said increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “expand our launch capabilities.”
“More launches mean more ideas in space,” Peck said. “It can’t be bad for Blue Origin to even be behind.”
