The aerospace company, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the highly anticipated launch of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday because of unfavorable weather conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Mission Postponement Reasons
Precipitation and a ground system issue caused initial delays, followed by thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch closed, forcing mission controllers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Rivalry between Blue Origin and Musk's space company has been heating up in recent months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To ease airspace congestion amid the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting 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 another attempt as soon as midweek within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.
Mission Objectives
When it eventually launches, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, 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 act as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would represent a major advancement for the firm if successful.
Earlier Mission
The rocket's first launch in January was marked as a success, as its payload achieved orbit and completed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was designed as reusable, failed to make its landing on a platform in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.
Landing Attempts
For this new mission Blue Origin will try once more to recover the first stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.
Industry Competition
Rival firms of billionaires Musk and Bezos are locked in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as NASA opened up proposals for its lunar exploration program, complaining that one company was lagging behind.
The current administration has seen the government push NASA to accelerate its progress to launch astronauts to the Moon in competition against the Asian nation.
More rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “expand our options with regard to liftoff.”
“More launches means more ideas in orbit,” an ex-agency official stated. “It isn't a bad thing to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”
