Blue Origin, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to delay the eagerly awaited launch of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday because of adverse meteorological factors at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Reasons
Rainfall and a ground system issue led to early setbacks, then came thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window ended, forcing mission controllers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Rivalry between Blue Origin and Musk's space company has been heating up in recent months.
New Launch Window
To relieve airspace congestion during the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from the beginning of the week.
After scrubbing the launch, Blue Origin said on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the FAA, it was targeting a new try as soon as Wednesday within a window of afternoon hours EST.
Launch Goals
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will transport NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, to study the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of human exploration.
Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would represent a major advancement for the company if successful.
Earlier Mission
The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was marked as a achievement, as its cargo achieved orbit and successfully performed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was meant to be reusable, did not stick its landing on a platform in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.
Landing Attempts
In its second effort the launch provider will try once more to land the booster stage.
Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that feat.
Space Race
Rival firms of tycoons Musk and Bezos are engaged in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as NASA opened up proposals for its lunar exploration program, noting that one company was falling behind schedule.
Donald Trump’s second term has seen the administration push the agency to accelerate its progress 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.”
“More launches means more ideas in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It can’t be a bad thing to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”
