Blue Origin, the space company owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the planned launch of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday due to adverse weather conditions at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Rain and a ground system problem caused delays that were followed by cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window ended, leaving managers with the only option to push back the rocket’s planned second mission. Competition between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has intensified in recent months.
To relieve airspace congestion during the U.S. federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs starting Monday. But after canceling the launch, Blue Origin said Sunday evening that, in coordination with the FAA, it was aiming for another attempt as early as Wednesday in the window of 2:50 p.m. to 4:17 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
When finally launched, the 322-foot (98-meter) New Glenn rocket will be tasked with sending U.S. space agency Nasa’s sister Escapade spacecraft to Mars, aiming to study the Red Planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of human exploration.
Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a key test of whether it can achieve a booster recovery, which would be a technical breakthrough for the company if successful.
New Glenn’s maiden flight in January was considered a success, as its payload reached orbit and successfully completed testing. But its first stage booster, meant to be reusable, failed to land on a platform in the Atlantic and was lost during descent.
In its second effort, Blue Origin will once again attempt to reclaim the booster stage. So far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved this feat.
The competing companies of billionaires Musk and Bezos are engaged in a commercial space race that has recently intensified, as NASA opened bids for its planned lunar mission, complaining about SpaceX’s delay.
Donald Trump’s second term in the White House saw the administration press NASA to accelerate its progress toward sending a crewed mission to the Moon, amid a race with China.
after newsletter promotion
Mason Peck, a professor of aeronautics at Cornell University and former chief technologist at NASA, said increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “expand our launch options.”
“More launches means more ideas in space,” Peck said. “It can’t be a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even lagging behind.”
