Blue Origin, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to delay the highly anticipated liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday because of unfavorable weather conditions at the Florida launch site.
Launch Delay Causes
Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground caused initial delays, then came thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch closed, leaving managers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been heating up in recent months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To ease traffic in the skies amid the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.
After scrubbing the mission, Blue Origin announced late Sunday that, working alongside the FAA, it was targeting another attempt as early as Wednesday within a time slot of afternoon hours EST.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will transport NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, to study the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of human exploration.
The mission will also serve as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would represent a major advancement for the company if accomplished.
Earlier Mission
The rocket's first launch in January was marked as a success, as its payload achieved orbit and successfully performed tests.
But its first-stage booster, which was designed as reusable, did not stick its touchdown on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and instead was lost during descent.
Recovery Efforts
For this new mission Blue Origin will make another attempt to land the first stage.
Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has managed that feat.
Space Race
Rival firms of tycoons Musk and Bezos are engaged in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency began accepting bids for its planned moon mission, noting that one company was lagging behind.
The current administration has involved the government pile pressure on NASA to accelerate its progress to send a crewed mission to the Moon in competition against China.
Increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “expand our options with regard to launch.”
“More launches means more ideas in space,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It can’t be a bad thing to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”
