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The aerospace company, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the highly anticipated liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday due to adverse meteorological conditions at the Florida launch site.

Launch Delay Causes

Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground led to early setbacks, followed by thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window closed, forcing mission controllers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.

Rivalry between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in the past few months.

Rescheduled Attempt

To relieve airspace congestion amid the US federal government shutdown, the aviation regulator is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.

After scrubbing the launch, Blue Origin announced on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was targeting a new try as early as midweek within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.

Mission Objectives

Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will transport NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, to examine the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of sending people there.

The mission will also act as a key test of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would prove a major advancement for the firm if successful.

Previous Flight

New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was marked as a success, as its cargo reached space and completed experiments.

But its first-stage booster, which was designed as reusable, failed to make its landing on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during descent.

Recovery Efforts

For this new mission Blue Origin will try once more to land the first stage.

Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that feat.

Industry Competition

The competing companies of tycoons Bezos and Musk are engaged in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as the space agency began accepting proposals for its lunar exploration program, complaining that SpaceX was lagging behind.

The current administration has involved the administration pile pressure on NASA to speed up its timeline to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface amid a race with China.

Increased competition between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to liftoff.”

“Additional missions means more ideas in space,” an ex-agency official said. “It isn't a bad thing to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”