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The aerospace company, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the eagerly awaited liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend due to unfavorable meteorological factors at Cape Canaveral.

Mission Postponement Causes

Rainfall and a ground system issue led to early setbacks, followed by thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window ended, leaving managers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.

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

New Launch Window

To relieve traffic in the skies amid the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.

Following the cancellation of the mission, the company said late Sunday that, in coordination with the FAA, it was aiming for a new try as soon as Wednesday within a window of afternoon hours EST.

Launch Goals

When it eventually launches, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will carry the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to Mars, to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of sending people there.

Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a crucial trial of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would prove a major advancement for the firm if successful.

Previous Flight

The rocket's first launch in January was marked as a achievement, as its payload reached space and successfully performed experiments.

But its main rocket section, which was meant to be reusable, failed to make its touchdown on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during descent.

Recovery Efforts

For this new mission the launch provider will make another attempt to recover the first stage.

Thus far, only SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.

Space Race

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

Donald Trump’s second term has seen the government push the agency to accelerate its timeline to send a crewed mission to the Moon amid a race with the Asian nation.

More rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “expand our options with regard to liftoff.”

“Additional missions means more ideas in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It can’t be a negative to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”