The aerospace company, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the eagerly awaited liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday because of unfavorable weather factors at the Florida launch site.
Mission Postponement Reasons
Precipitation and a ground system issue led to initial delays, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window ended, forcing mission controllers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Competition between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in the past few months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To relieve traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is limiting private space launches starting the beginning of the week.
After scrubbing the mission, the company said on Sunday evening that, working alongside the FAA, it was aiming for a new try as soon as Wednesday within a time slot of afternoon hours EST.
Mission Objectives
When it eventually launches, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will transport NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, in an effort to study the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of sending people there.
Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a key test of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would prove a major advancement for the firm if accomplished.
Earlier Mission
New Glenn’s inaugural flight in the start of the year was marked as a achievement, as its cargo reached space and completed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was designed as recoverable, failed to make its landing on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and instead was lost during descent.
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 billionaires Musk and Bezos are locked in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency opened up bids for its planned moon mission, complaining that one company was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has involved the government pile pressure on the agency to accelerate its timeline to launch astronauts to the lunar surface in competition against China.
Increased competition between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to liftoff.”
“More launches means more ideas in space,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It isn't a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”
