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Blue Origin, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the highly anticipated launch of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend because of unfavorable weather conditions at Cape Canaveral.

Launch Delay Causes

Rainfall and a ground system issue caused initial delays, followed by thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window closed, forcing managers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.

Rivalry between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been intensifying in recent months.

New Launch Window

To relieve traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs starting Monday.

After scrubbing the mission, Blue Origin announced on Sunday evening that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was targeting a new try as early as midweek within a time slot of afternoon hours EST.

Mission Objectives

When it eventually launches, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will carry NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to Mars, to study the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of human exploration.

The mission will also act as a crucial trial of its ability to perform reusable rocket landing, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the company if accomplished.

Previous Flight

The rocket's first launch in January was considered 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 landing on a platform in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during descent.

Landing Attempts

For this new mission Blue Origin will make another attempt to recover the first stage.

Until now, only SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.

Industry Competition

Rival firms of tycoons Musk and Bezos are engaged in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as NASA opened up bids for its planned moon mission, complaining that one company was falling behind schedule.

Donald Trump’s second term has seen the government pile pressure on the agency to accelerate its timeline to launch astronauts to the lunar surface amid a race with China.

Increased competition between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to liftoff.”

“Additional missions means more ideas in space,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It can’t be a negative to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”