The second launch of Blue Origin’s partially reusable New Glenn rocket was scrubbed on Sunday on account of adversarial climate circumstances, delaying NASA’s newest Mars mission. The Jeff Bezos-owned industrial house firm introduced that its subsequent launch window from Cape Canaveral House Power Station in Florida shall be tried “no earlier” than Wednesday, November twelfth, between 2:50PM and 4:17PM ET.
This can be a important launch for the 320-foot-tall megarocket, which is tasked with sending NASA’s twin ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) probes into house — the primary Mars-bound mission since NASA launched its Perseverance and Ingenuity automobiles in 2020 to discover the crimson planet’s floor. The ESCAPADE satellites are projected to succeed in Mars orbit in 2027, the place they may measure the planet’s magnetic area and ambiance.
This can even be Blue Origin’s newest try to land New Glenn’s reusable first-stage booster, which, very similar to SpaceX’s Falcon rocket boosters, is designed to vertically contact down on a sea-based platform following launch. Whereas Blue Origin efficiently launched New Glenn for the primary time in January after a number of delays, the booster was misplaced throughout its touchdown descent. A profitable launch and touchdown would assist Blue Origin to show itself as a deep-space launch supplier that’s able to competing with established rivals like SpaceX and United Launch Alliance.
Blue Origin says it labored with the Federal Aviation Administration to pick out its newest launch window, having seemingly been given an exemption to new FAA guidelines that prohibit industrial rockets from being launched between 6AM and 10PM. This emergency order got here into impact on November tenth to alleviate air visitors congestion throughout the ongoing authorities shutdown. If all goes to plan, the dwell webcast for New Glenn’s second flight will begin 20 minutes previous to launch on Wednesday.
