Blue Origin, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to delay the eagerly awaited launch of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend due to adverse weather factors at the Florida launch site.
Launch Delay Causes
Precipitation and a ground system issue led to initial delays, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch ended, leaving managers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.
Rivalry between Blue Origin and Musk's space company has been heating up in the past few months.
New Launch Window
To relieve airspace congestion amid the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is limiting private space launches starting the beginning of the week.
After scrubbing the mission, the company said late Sunday that, in coordination with the FAA, it was targeting another attempt as early as midweek within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.
Mission Objectives
When it eventually launches, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will transport the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, in an effort to study the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of sending people there.
The mission will also act as a key test of its ability to perform reusable rocket landing, which would prove a major advancement for the firm if successful.
Earlier Mission
The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was considered a achievement, as its payload reached space and successfully performed tests.
But its main rocket section, which was designed as reusable, failed to make its landing on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.
Landing Attempts
In its second effort Blue Origin will make another attempt to recover the booster stage.
Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.
Space Race
The competing companies of billionaires Bezos and Musk are engaged in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as the space agency began accepting bids for its lunar exploration program, noting that SpaceX was lagging behind.
The current administration has involved the government push the agency to speed up its progress to launch astronauts to the Moon in competition against the Asian nation.
More rivalry between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to liftoff.”
“Additional missions means more ideas in space,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It isn't a bad thing to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”
