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Blue Origin, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the highly anticipated liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend because of adverse meteorological factors at the Florida launch site.

Launch Delay Reasons

Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground caused initial delays, then came thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch closed, leaving managers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.

Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been intensifying in recent months.

New Launch Window

To relieve traffic in the skies during the US federal government shutdown, the aviation regulator is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs starting Monday.

After scrubbing the launch, Blue Origin said late Sunday that, in coordination with the FAA, it was targeting another attempt as soon as Wednesday within a window of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.

Launch Goals

Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will transport the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, to study the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of human exploration.

The mission will also serve as a crucial trial of its ability to perform reusable rocket landing, which would represent a major advancement for the firm if accomplished.

Earlier Mission

The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was marked as a success, as its payload achieved orbit and successfully performed tests.

But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be recoverable, failed to make its touchdown on a platform in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during descent.

Landing Attempts

For this new mission the launch provider will make another attempt to land the booster stage.

Until now, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.

Industry Competition

Rival firms of tycoons Bezos and Musk are engaged in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as NASA opened up proposals for its lunar exploration program, complaining that one company was falling behind schedule.

The current administration has involved the government push the agency to speed up its progress to launch astronauts to the Moon in competition against China.

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

“More launches means greater innovation in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It can’t be a negative to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”