The aerospace company, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the eagerly awaited launch of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday because of unfavorable meteorological factors at Cape Canaveral.
Mission Postponement Causes
Rainfall and a ground system issue caused early setbacks, then came thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch ended, leaving managers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.
Competition between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in the past few months.
New Launch Window
To relieve traffic in the skies amid the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting private space launches from Monday.
Following the cancellation of the launch, the company announced late Sunday that, working alongside the FAA, it was targeting another attempt as soon as midweek within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will transport NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, to examine the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of sending people there.
The mission will also serve as a key test of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the firm if successful.
Earlier Mission
The rocket's first launch in January was considered a achievement, as its cargo reached space and successfully performed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was meant to be recoverable, did not stick its landing on a platform in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during descent.
Recovery Efforts
For this new mission Blue Origin will try once more to land the first stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.
Industry Competition
The competing companies of billionaires Bezos and Musk are locked in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency opened up bids for its lunar exploration program, complaining that one company was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has seen the government pile pressure on the agency to speed up its timeline to launch astronauts to the lunar surface amid a race with China.
More rivalry between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”
“Additional missions means more ideas in space,” an ex-agency official said. “It isn't a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”
