The aerospace company, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the eagerly awaited liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday because of adverse weather factors at the Florida launch site.
Launch Delay Reasons
Rainfall and a ground system issue caused initial delays, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch closed, forcing managers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been heating up in recent months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To relieve traffic in the skies during the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting private space launches from the beginning of the week.
After scrubbing the mission, the company said late Sunday that, in coordination with the FAA, it was aiming for another attempt as soon as Wednesday within a time slot of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.
Launch Goals
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will carry the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to Mars, to study the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of sending people there.
Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a key test of its ability to perform reusable rocket landing, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the company if accomplished.
Earlier Mission
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in the start of the year was marked as a success, as its cargo achieved orbit and successfully performed tests.
But its main rocket section, which was meant to be reusable, failed to make its landing on a ocean-based target in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.
Landing Attempts
For this new mission Blue Origin will make another attempt to recover the booster stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.
Industry Competition
The competing companies of tycoons Musk and Bezos are locked in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as NASA began accepting bids for its planned moon mission, complaining that SpaceX was lagging behind.
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 the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”
“Additional missions means more ideas in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It can’t be a negative to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”
