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The aerospace company, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the eagerly awaited liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday due to unfavorable meteorological factors at the Florida launch site.

Mission Postponement Causes

Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground caused early setbacks, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window ended, leaving managers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.

Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in recent months.

Rescheduled Attempt

To relieve airspace congestion during the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from the beginning of the week.

Following the cancellation of the launch, the company announced on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was aiming for a new try as soon as midweek within a window of afternoon hours EST.

Mission Objectives

Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, in an effort to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of sending people there.

Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a key test of its ability to perform 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 marked as a achievement, as its payload reached space and successfully performed experiments.

But its first-stage booster, which was designed as reusable, did not stick its landing on a ocean-based target in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during descent.

Landing Attempts

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

Thus far, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.

Industry Competition

Rival firms of billionaires Bezos and Musk are locked in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency opened up bids for its lunar exploration program, noting that SpaceX was lagging behind.

The current administration has involved the government pile pressure on the agency to speed up its progress 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 launch.”

“Additional missions means more ideas in space,” an ex-agency official stated. “It can’t be a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”