The aerospace company, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the highly anticipated liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday due to unfavorable weather conditions at the Florida launch site.
Launch Delay Causes
Precipitation and a ground system issue led to initial delays, then came thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch closed, forcing mission controllers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in the past few months.
New Launch Window
To ease traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting private space launches from the beginning of the week.
After scrubbing the mission, Blue Origin announced late Sunday that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was aiming for another attempt as soon as Wednesday within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.
Launch Goals
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will carry the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, in an effort to study the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of human exploration.
The mission will also act as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the firm if accomplished.
Earlier Mission
The rocket's first launch in January was considered a achievement, as its payload reached space and successfully performed tests.
But its main rocket section, which was designed as reusable, did not stick its touchdown on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.
Recovery Efforts
For this new mission the launch provider will try once more to recover the first stage.
Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.
Space Race
The competing companies of billionaires Bezos and Musk are locked in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency began accepting bids for its lunar exploration program, complaining that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has involved the administration push NASA to speed up its timeline to send a crewed mission to the Moon in competition against China.
More rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “expand our options with regard to launch.”
“More launches means more ideas in orbit,” an ex-agency official stated. “It isn't a negative to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”
