The aerospace company, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the highly anticipated launch of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday because of unfavorable weather factors at the Florida launch site.
Mission Postponement Reasons
Rainfall and a ground system issue led to initial delays, then came cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch closed, forcing managers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Competition between Blue Origin and Musk's space company has been intensifying in the past few months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To ease airspace congestion during the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs starting Monday.
After scrubbing the launch, the company said late Sunday that, in coordination with the FAA, it was aiming for a new try as early as midweek within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will carry the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of sending people there.
The mission will also act as a key test of its ability to perform 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 considered a success, as its cargo achieved orbit and successfully performed experiments.
But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be recoverable, failed to make its touchdown on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.
Recovery Efforts
In its second effort Blue Origin will make another attempt to land the booster stage.
Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.
Space Race
Rival firms of billionaires Musk and Bezos are locked in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as NASA opened up proposals for its planned moon mission, noting that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
The current administration 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 “give us more choices with regard to liftoff.”
“Additional missions means more ideas in space,” an ex-agency official stated. “It isn't a negative to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”
