Blue Origin, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to delay the highly anticipated liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday because of unfavorable meteorological factors at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Reasons
Precipitation and a ground system issue caused early setbacks, then came thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch ended, leaving mission controllers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Rivalry between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been intensifying in the past few months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To relieve traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting private space launches starting the beginning of the week.
After scrubbing the mission, the company announced late Sunday that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was targeting a new try as soon as midweek within a time slot of afternoon hours EST.
Launch Goals
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will transport the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, to study the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of sending people there.
Blue Origin’s launch will also serve 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 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 recoverable, failed to make its touchdown on a platform in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during descent.
Recovery Efforts
For this new mission the launch provider will try once more to land the first stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has managed that feat.
Space Race
Rival firms of billionaires Bezos and Musk are locked in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as NASA 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 amid a race with China.
Increased competition between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to launch.”
“More launches means greater innovation in space,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It isn't a bad thing to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”
