The aerospace company, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the highly anticipated liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday because of unfavorable meteorological factors at the Florida launch site.
Mission Postponement Reasons
Rainfall and a ground system issue led to initial delays, then came thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch closed, forcing managers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.
Competition between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been intensifying in the past few months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To ease traffic in the skies amid the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs starting the beginning of the week.
After scrubbing the launch, the company announced late Sunday that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was targeting another attempt as soon as Wednesday within a window of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.
Launch Goals
When it eventually launches, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will transport NASA’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 whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the firm 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 successfully performed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was designed as recoverable, did not stick its touchdown on a platform in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during descent.
Recovery Efforts
For this new mission the launch provider will make another attempt to recover the booster stage.
Thus far, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.
Space Race
The competing companies of billionaires Musk and Bezos are engaged in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as NASA opened up proposals for its lunar exploration program, noting 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 Moon amid a race with the Asian nation.
More rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “expand our options with regard to launch.”
“More launches means greater innovation in space,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It isn't a bad thing to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”
