The aerospace company, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the eagerly awaited launch of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend due to unfavorable weather factors at the Florida launch site.
Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground led to early setbacks, followed by thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window closed, forcing managers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.
Competition between Bezos' firm and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in recent months.
To ease traffic in the skies during the US federal government shutdown, the aviation regulator is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs starting Monday.
After scrubbing the mission, the company announced on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was targeting a new try as soon as Wednesday within a window of afternoon hours EST.
Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will carry the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, to study the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of human exploration.
Blue Origin’s launch 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 successful.
The rocket's first launch in January was marked as a success, as its payload reached space and completed experiments.
But its main rocket section, which was designed as recoverable, did not stick its landing on a platform in the ocean, and instead was lost during the return phase.
For this new mission Blue Origin will try once more to recover the booster stage.
Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that feat.
The competing companies of tycoons Bezos and Musk are engaged in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as NASA opened up proposals for its planned moon mission, 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 send a crewed mission to the Moon in competition against China.
More rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “expand our options with regard to liftoff.”
“More launches means greater innovation in space,” an ex-agency official said. “It can’t be a negative to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”
A tech journalist with over a decade of experience covering emerging technologies and digital innovation across global markets.
