Blue Origin, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to delay the eagerly awaited liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend due to unfavorable meteorological factors at the Florida launch site.
Mission Postponement Causes
Precipitation and a ground system issue caused early setbacks, then came cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window closed, leaving managers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been heating up in recent months.
New Launch Window
To ease traffic in the skies amid the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting private space launches starting the beginning of the week.
After scrubbing the launch, the company announced on Sunday evening that, working alongside the FAA, it was targeting another attempt as early as Wednesday within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will carry the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to Mars, to study the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of human exploration.
Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a key test of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the company if accomplished.
Earlier Mission
The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was considered a achievement, as its cargo reached space and successfully performed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was designed as reusable, did not stick its landing on a platform in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during descent.
Recovery Efforts
In its second effort the launch provider will try once more to land the first stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.
Space Race
Rival firms of billionaires Musk and Bezos are locked in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as NASA opened up proposals for its lunar exploration program, noting that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
Donald Trump’s second term has seen the administration push NASA to speed up its progress to launch astronauts to the Moon in competition against China.
Increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to liftoff.”
“More launches means more ideas in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It isn't a bad thing to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”
