Blue Origin, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the highly anticipated liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday because of unfavorable weather factors at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Reasons
Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground caused early setbacks, then came thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch ended, leaving mission controllers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.
Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been heating up in the past few months.
New Launch Window
To ease airspace congestion amid the US federal government shutdown, the aviation regulator is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.
After scrubbing the mission, Blue Origin announced late Sunday that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was aiming for a new try as soon as midweek within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.
Launch Goals
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, in an effort to examine the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of human exploration.
The mission will also act as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would prove a technical breakthrough 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 completed experiments.
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 instead was lost during the return phase.
Landing Attempts
In its second effort the launch provider will make another attempt to recover the booster stage.
Until now, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.
Space Race
The competing companies of billionaires Musk and Bezos are locked in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency began accepting proposals for its planned moon mission, complaining that one company was falling behind schedule.
Donald Trump’s second term has involved the administration pile pressure on the agency to speed up its progress to launch astronauts to the lunar surface in competition against the Asian nation.
More rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “expand our options with regard to launch.”
“Additional missions means greater innovation in space,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It isn't a negative to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”
