Blue Origin, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to delay the highly anticipated launch of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend because of adverse weather conditions at Cape Canaveral.
Launch Delay Reasons
Precipitation and a ground system issue caused initial delays, then came thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window closed, leaving managers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.
Competition between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in recent months.
Rescheduled Attempt
To ease airspace congestion during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.
After scrubbing the launch, the company announced on Sunday evening that, working alongside the FAA, it was targeting a new try as soon as Wednesday within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.
Mission Objectives
Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, 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 reusable rocket landing, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the company if accomplished.
Previous Flight
The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was considered a success, as its payload reached space and successfully performed tests.
But its main rocket section, which was meant to be reusable, did not stick its touchdown on a platform in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.
Landing Attempts
In its second effort Blue Origin will try once more to recover the booster stage.
Until now, only SpaceX has managed that feat.
Space Race
Rival firms of billionaires Bezos and Musk are locked in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as NASA opened up proposals for its lunar exploration program, complaining that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.
Donald Trump’s second term has seen the administration pile pressure on the agency to speed up its timeline to send a crewed mission to the Moon in competition against China.
Increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to liftoff.”
“Additional missions means more ideas in space,” an ex-agency official said. “It can’t be a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”
