Blue Origin, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the highly anticipated launch of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend because of adverse weather conditions at the Florida launch site.
Launch Delay Causes
Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground caused initial delays, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch closed, forcing managers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Competition between Bezos' firm and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in the past few months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To ease airspace congestion during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.
After scrubbing the mission, Blue Origin said late Sunday that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was targeting a new try as soon as midweek within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.
Launch Goals
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will transport the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, in an effort to study the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of sending people there.
Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a key test of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the firm if accomplished.
Earlier Mission
The rocket's first launch in January was marked as a success, as its payload achieved orbit and successfully performed tests.
But its main rocket section, which was designed as recoverable, did not stick its landing on a platform in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.
Landing Attempts
For this new mission Blue Origin will make another attempt to land the booster stage.
Until now, only SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.
Space Race
Rival firms of tycoons Bezos and Musk are locked in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as the space agency opened up proposals for its planned moon mission, noting that one company was falling behind schedule.
Donald Trump’s second term has seen the administration push NASA to accelerate its timeline to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface amid a race with the Asian nation.
Increased competition between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”
“More launches means more ideas in space,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It can’t be a negative to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”
