The aerospace company, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the highly anticipated launch of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend due to unfavorable meteorological conditions at the Florida launch site.
Mission Postponement Causes
Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground caused early setbacks, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window closed, leaving mission controllers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Competition between Blue Origin and Musk's space company has been heating up in the past few months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To ease traffic in the skies amid the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is limiting private space launches from Monday.
Following the cancellation of the mission, the company announced on Sunday evening that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was targeting a new try as soon as midweek within a window of afternoon hours EST.
Launch Goals
When it eventually launches, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will carry 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 human exploration.
The mission will also serve as a key test of its ability to perform reusable rocket landing, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the company if successful.
Previous Flight
The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was marked as a achievement, as its payload achieved orbit and successfully performed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was meant to be recoverable, failed to make its landing on a platform in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during descent.
Recovery Efforts
For this new mission the launch provider will make another attempt to land the first stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.
Industry Competition
The competing companies of tycoons Bezos and Musk are engaged in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as NASA opened up proposals for its lunar exploration program, complaining that one company was falling behind schedule.
Donald Trump’s second term has seen the government push NASA to speed up its timeline to launch astronauts to the Moon in competition against the Asian nation.
More rivalry between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to liftoff.”
“Additional missions means greater innovation in orbit,” an ex-agency official stated. “It isn't a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”
