Blue Origin, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the highly anticipated liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend due to adverse weather factors at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Reasons
Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground led to initial delays, followed by thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window ended, forcing managers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Rivalry between Blue Origin and Musk's space company has been heating up in the past few months.
New Launch Window
To ease traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.
Following the cancellation of the launch, the company announced late Sunday that, working alongside the FAA, it was aiming for a new try as early as Wednesday within a time slot of afternoon hours EST.
Launch Goals
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, to examine the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of human exploration.
Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a key test of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the company if successful.
Previous Flight
The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was considered a achievement, as its payload reached space and successfully performed experiments.
But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be recoverable, did not stick its touchdown on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during descent.
Recovery Efforts
For this new mission the launch provider will make another attempt to recover the booster stage.
Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.
Space Race
The competing companies of tycoons Musk and Bezos are locked in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as NASA began accepting proposals for its planned moon mission, noting that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has seen the government pile pressure on the agency to accelerate its progress to launch astronauts to the Moon in competition against China.
More rivalry between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to liftoff.”
“More launches means greater innovation in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It can’t be a bad thing to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”
