🔗 Share this article

The aerospace company, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the eagerly awaited launch of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend because of adverse weather factors at Cape Canaveral.

Launch Delay Causes

Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground led to initial delays, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch ended, leaving managers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.

Rivalry between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in recent months.

Rescheduled Attempt

To relieve airspace congestion during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs from the beginning of the week.

Following the cancellation of the mission, Blue Origin said on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the FAA, it was targeting another attempt as soon as Wednesday within a time slot of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.

Mission Objectives

Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, to study the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of sending people there.

The mission will also serve as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would represent a major advancement for the company if accomplished.

Earlier Mission

The rocket's first launch in January was marked as a success, as its payload achieved orbit and completed experiments.

But its main rocket section, which was designed as recoverable, did not stick its landing on a platform in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during descent.

Recovery Efforts

In its second effort Blue Origin will try once more to land the first stage.

Thus far, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.

Space Race

Rival firms of billionaires Bezos and Musk are engaged in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency opened up bids for its planned moon mission, noting that one company was falling behind schedule.

Donald Trump’s second term has seen the government push NASA to accelerate its progress to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface in competition against the Asian nation.

Increased competition between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”

“More launches means greater innovation in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It isn't a bad thing to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”