Blue Origin, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the highly anticipated liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday because of unfavorable weather conditions at the Florida launch site.
Mission Postponement Causes
Precipitation and a ground system issue led to initial delays, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window ended, leaving managers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.
Competition between Blue Origin and Musk's space company has been heating up in recent months.
New Launch Window
To ease airspace congestion during the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting private space launches from Monday.
After scrubbing the mission, the company said on Sunday evening that, working alongside the FAA, it was aiming for another attempt as early as midweek within a time slot of afternoon hours EST.
Mission Objectives
When it eventually launches, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will transport the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to Mars, to study the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of human exploration.
Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the firm if successful.
Previous Flight
The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was marked as a achievement, as its cargo achieved orbit and completed experiments.
But its first-stage booster, which was designed as recoverable, failed to make its landing on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during descent.
Landing Attempts
In its second effort Blue Origin will make another attempt to land the first stage.
Until now, only 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 the space agency began accepting proposals for its planned moon mission, complaining that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has seen the administration pile pressure on the agency to accelerate its timeline to send a crewed mission to the Moon amid a race with the Asian nation.
Increased competition between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to liftoff.”
“Additional missions means more ideas in space,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It can’t be a bad thing to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”
