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

Launch Delay Reasons

Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground caused initial delays, then came thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window closed, leaving mission controllers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.

Competition 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 government funding gap, the aviation regulator is restricting private space launches from the beginning of the week.

Following the cancellation of the launch, Blue Origin announced late Sunday that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was aiming for another attempt as soon as Wednesday within a window of afternoon hours EST.

Mission Objectives

Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will carry NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, in an effort to study the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of sending people there.

Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a key test of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the firm if accomplished.

Previous Flight

The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was marked as a achievement, as its cargo achieved orbit and completed experiments.

But its main rocket section, which was designed as recoverable, failed to make its landing on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and instead was lost during descent.

Recovery Efforts

In its second effort Blue Origin will make another attempt to land the booster stage.

Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.

Industry Competition

Rival firms of billionaires Musk and Bezos are engaged in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as NASA began accepting proposals for its planned moon mission, noting that one company was falling behind schedule.

The current administration has seen the government pile pressure on the agency to speed up its progress to send a crewed mission to the Moon in competition against China.

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

“Additional missions means more ideas in orbit,” an ex-agency official stated. “It isn't a negative to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”