The aerospace company, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the highly anticipated liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday because of unfavorable meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Mission Postponement Reasons
Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground led to initial delays, then came cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch closed, forcing mission controllers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Competition between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been heating up in the past few months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To relieve airspace congestion amid the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting private space launches from the beginning of the week.
After scrubbing the mission, the company announced late Sunday that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was aiming for another attempt as soon as Wednesday within a window of afternoon hours EST.
Launch Goals
When it eventually launches, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will carry the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, to study the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of sending people there.
Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a key test of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would represent a major advancement for the company if successful.
Earlier Mission
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in the start of the year was marked as a success, as its payload achieved orbit and completed tests.
But its main rocket section, which was meant to be reusable, did not stick its touchdown on a platform in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during descent.
Recovery Efforts
In its second effort Blue Origin will make another attempt to recover the first stage.
Until now, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.
Industry Competition
The competing companies of tycoons Musk and Bezos are engaged in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as NASA began accepting proposals for its planned moon mission, complaining that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has involved the administration push the agency to accelerate its progress to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface amid a race with the Asian nation.
More rivalry between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to launch.”
“Additional missions means greater innovation in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It can’t be a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”
