The aerospace company, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the eagerly awaited liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday because of adverse meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Causes
Precipitation and a ground system issue led to early setbacks, followed by thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch closed, leaving managers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Competition between Blue Origin and Musk's space company has been intensifying in recent months.
New Launch Window
To relieve traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.
After scrubbing the launch, the company announced late Sunday that, in coordination with the FAA, it was aiming for a new try as soon as midweek within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will carry the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, in an effort to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of sending people there.
The mission will also serve as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would represent a major advancement for the company if accomplished.
Previous Flight
The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was considered a achievement, as its payload reached space and completed experiments.
But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, failed to make its landing on a platform in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during descent.
Landing Attempts
In its second effort the launch provider will try once more to recover the first stage.
Thus far, only SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.
Space Race
The competing companies of billionaires Bezos and Musk are engaged in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as NASA began accepting bids for its planned moon mission, noting that one company was lagging behind.
Donald Trump’s second term has seen the administration pile pressure on NASA to speed up its progress 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 liftoff.”
“Additional missions means more ideas in orbit,” an ex-agency official said. “It isn't a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”
