Blue Origin, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the highly anticipated liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday due to adverse weather factors at Cape Canaveral.
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 intensifying in recent months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To relieve airspace congestion amid the US federal government shutdown, the aviation regulator is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs starting Monday.
After scrubbing the launch, Blue Origin said late Sunday that, in coordination with the FAA, it was targeting a new try as early as midweek within a time slot of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.
Launch Goals
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will transport the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, to study the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of sending people there.
The mission will also act as a crucial trial of its ability to perform reusable rocket landing, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the company if accomplished.
Previous Flight
The rocket's first launch in January was marked as a success, as its payload reached space and successfully performed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was designed as recoverable, did not stick its landing on a ocean-based target in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during the return phase.
Landing Attempts
In its second effort Blue Origin will try once more to recover the first stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that feat.
Industry Competition
The competing companies of tycoons Musk and Bezos are locked in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as NASA opened up bids for its planned moon mission, complaining that one company was falling behind schedule.
Donald Trump’s second term has involved the government push NASA to accelerate its timeline to launch astronauts to the lunar surface in competition against China.
More rivalry between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to liftoff.”
“Additional missions means greater innovation in orbit,” an ex-agency official said. “It can’t be a bad thing to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”
