🔗 Share this article

Blue Origin, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the highly anticipated liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend because of unfavorable meteorological factors at the Florida launch site.

Launch Delay Causes

Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground caused initial delays, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window closed, forcing managers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.

Rivalry between Blue Origin and Musk's space company has been intensifying in the past few months.

Rescheduled Attempt

To ease airspace congestion amid the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting private space launches starting Monday.

Following the cancellation of the mission, the company announced late Sunday that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was aiming for another attempt as early as Wednesday within a window of afternoon hours EST.

Mission Objectives

When it eventually launches, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will transport NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, in an effort to examine the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of human exploration.

Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a key test of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would represent 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 completed experiments.

But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be recoverable, did not stick its landing on a ocean-based target in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during descent.

Recovery Efforts

In its second effort the launch provider will try once more to recover the booster stage.

Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.

Space Race

The competing companies of tycoons Bezos and Musk are engaged in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as the space agency opened up proposals for its planned moon mission, noting that one company was falling behind schedule.

The current administration has involved the administration push NASA to accelerate its timeline to launch astronauts to the Moon in competition against the Asian nation.

More rivalry between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to liftoff.”

“More launches means more ideas in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It isn't a bad thing to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”