🔗 Share this article

Blue Origin, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the highly anticipated launch of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend because of unfavorable meteorological factors at Cape Canaveral.

Mission Postponement Reasons

Precipitation and a ground system issue caused early setbacks, then came thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window closed, leaving managers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.

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

New Launch Window

To ease airspace congestion during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs starting Monday.

After scrubbing the mission, the company said on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was aiming for a new try as early as midweek within a time slot 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 Mars, in an effort to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of human exploration.

Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the company if accomplished.

Earlier Mission

The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was considered a success, as its cargo achieved orbit and completed experiments.

But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be recoverable, failed to make its landing on a ocean-based target in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during the return phase.

Recovery Efforts

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

Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that feat.

Space Race

The competing companies of billionaires Bezos and Musk are locked 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 lagging behind.

The current administration has involved the administration push the agency to speed up its progress to launch astronauts to the lunar surface in competition against China.

More rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to liftoff.”

“Additional missions means greater innovation in orbit,” an ex-agency official stated. “It can’t be a negative to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”