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

Launch Delay Reasons

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

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

New Launch Window

To ease traffic in the skies during the US federal government shutdown, the aviation regulator is limiting private space launches from the beginning of the week.

Following the cancellation of the launch, Blue Origin announced on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was aiming for a new try as early as midweek within a window of afternoon hours EST.

Launch Goals

Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will transport NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to Mars, in an effort to study the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of sending people there.

The mission 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

New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was marked as a achievement, as its payload reached space and successfully performed tests.

But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be recoverable, did not stick its touchdown on a ocean-based target in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.

Recovery Efforts

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

Until now, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.

Industry Competition

The competing companies of billionaires Bezos and Musk are engaged in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency began accepting proposals for its lunar exploration program, complaining that one company was lagging behind.

The current administration has seen the government push NASA to speed up its progress to send a crewed mission to the Moon amid a race with the Asian nation.

More rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices 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 trailing behind.”