The aerospace company, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the eagerly awaited launch of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend due to adverse meteorological conditions at the Florida launch site.
Mission Postponement Causes
Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground caused initial delays, then came thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window ended, leaving managers to reschedule 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 relieve traffic in the skies amid the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting private space launches from Monday.
Following the cancellation of the mission, the company announced on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the FAA, it was targeting another attempt as early as midweek within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.
Launch Goals
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will carry the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, in an effort to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of human exploration.
Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a crucial trial of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would prove a major advancement for the company if accomplished.
Earlier Mission
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was marked as a success, as its payload reached space and completed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was meant to be reusable, failed to make its touchdown on a ocean-based target in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during descent.
Landing Attempts
For this new mission the launch provider will try once more to land the booster stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.
Space Race
The competing companies of billionaires Bezos and Musk are locked in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency opened up bids for its lunar exploration program, complaining that one company was falling behind schedule.
Donald Trump’s second term has involved the administration push NASA to speed up its progress to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface amid a race with the Asian nation.
More rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “expand our options with regard to launch.”
“Additional missions means more ideas in orbit,” an ex-agency official said. “It can’t be a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”
