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Blue Origin, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to delay the highly anticipated liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend due to adverse meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral.

Mission Postponement Causes

Rainfall and a ground system issue caused initial delays, followed by thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch ended, leaving managers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.

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

Rescheduled Attempt

To ease traffic in the skies amid the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting private space launches starting the beginning of the week.

Following the cancellation of the mission, Blue Origin announced on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the FAA, it was targeting another attempt as soon as Wednesday within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.

Launch Goals

When it eventually launches, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, to study the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of human exploration.

The mission will also act as a key test of its ability to perform reusable rocket landing, which would represent a major advancement for the company if accomplished.

Earlier Mission

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 main rocket section, which was meant to be recoverable, did not stick its landing on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and instead was lost during the return phase.

Landing Attempts

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

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

Industry Competition

Rival firms of tycoons Bezos and Musk are engaged in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as NASA opened up bids for its lunar exploration program, complaining that SpaceX was lagging behind.

The current administration has seen the administration push the agency to speed up its timeline to send a crewed mission to the Moon amid a race with China.

Increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “expand our options with regard to launch.”

“More launches means greater innovation in space,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It isn't a negative to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”