The aerospace company, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the eagerly awaited launch of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend due to adverse weather factors at Cape Canaveral.
Mission Postponement Causes
Rainfall and a ground system issue caused early setbacks, then came cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window closed, leaving mission controllers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.
Competition between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been intensifying in the past few months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To ease airspace congestion during the US federal government shutdown, the aviation regulator is restricting private space launches from the beginning of the week.
After scrubbing the launch, Blue Origin announced on Sunday evening that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was aiming for another attempt as soon as midweek within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will carry the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of human exploration.
The mission will also serve as a key test of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the firm if successful.
Previous Flight
The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was marked as a achievement, as its payload reached space and successfully performed tests.
But its main rocket section, which was designed as reusable, did not stick its touchdown on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.
Recovery Efforts
For this new mission the launch provider will try once more to land the booster stage.
Thus far, only SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.
Industry Competition
Rival firms of tycoons Bezos and Musk are locked in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as NASA began accepting proposals for its lunar exploration program, complaining that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
The current administration has involved the government push the agency to speed up its timeline to launch astronauts 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.”
“Additional missions means more ideas in space,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It isn't a negative to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”
