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The aerospace company, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the eagerly awaited launch of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday because of adverse weather conditions at the Florida launch site.

Mission Postponement Reasons

Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground caused initial delays, followed by thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window closed, leaving managers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.

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

New Launch Window

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

Following the cancellation of the mission, Blue Origin said late Sunday that, working alongside the FAA, 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 98-meter New Glenn rocket will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, to study the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of sending people there.

The mission will also serve as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would prove a major advancement for the firm if successful.

Previous Flight

The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was marked as a achievement, as its cargo reached space and successfully performed experiments.

But its main rocket section, which was meant to be reusable, did not stick its touchdown on a platform 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.

Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that feat.

Space Race

The competing companies of tycoons Bezos and Musk are engaged in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as the space agency opened up bids for its planned moon mission, complaining that one company was lagging behind.

Donald Trump’s second term has seen the government pile pressure on NASA to speed up its progress to send a crewed mission to the Moon in competition against the Asian nation.

More rivalry between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”

“Additional missions means more ideas in orbit,” an ex-agency official said. “It can’t be a bad thing to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”