The aerospace company, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the eagerly awaited launch of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday due to adverse weather conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Causes
Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground caused early setbacks, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch ended, forcing mission controllers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.
Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been intensifying in recent months.
New Launch Window
To relieve traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from the beginning of the week.
After scrubbing the launch, Blue Origin said late Sunday that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was targeting another attempt as soon as midweek within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.
Launch Goals
When it eventually launches, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will transport the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, in an effort to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of human exploration.
Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a key test of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would represent a major advancement for the company if successful.
Previous Flight
The rocket's first launch in January was marked as a achievement, as its payload reached space and completed tests.
But its first-stage booster, which was designed as recoverable, failed to make its landing on a platform in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during descent.
Recovery Efforts
For this new mission Blue Origin will make another attempt to recover the booster stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has managed that feat.
Space Race
Rival firms of billionaires Bezos and Musk are engaged in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency opened up bids for its planned moon mission, noting that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has seen the government push the agency to speed up its timeline to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface in competition against China.
Increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “expand our options with regard to launch.”
“Additional missions means greater innovation in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It isn't a negative to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”
