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The aerospace company, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to delay the eagerly awaited liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend due to unfavorable meteorological factors at the Florida launch site.

Launch Delay Reasons

Precipitation and a ground system issue led to early setbacks, then came cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window closed, leaving mission controllers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.

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

New Launch Window

To relieve airspace congestion amid the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs starting Monday.

After scrubbing the mission, the company said late Sunday that, working alongside the FAA, it was targeting another attempt as early as Wednesday within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.

Mission Objectives

Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will carry NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of sending people there.

The mission will also serve as a key test of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would prove a technical breakthrough 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 completed experiments.

But its main rocket section, which was designed as recoverable, did not stick its landing on a platform in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.

Recovery Efforts

In its second effort Blue Origin will try once more to recover the booster stage.

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

Space Race

The competing companies of billionaires Bezos and Musk are locked in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as the space agency began accepting bids for its lunar exploration program, noting that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.

The current administration has involved the government push the agency to speed up its timeline to send a crewed mission to the Moon in competition against the Asian nation.

More rivalry between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to launch.”

“Additional missions means greater innovation in space,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It can’t be a negative to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”