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Blue Origin, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the eagerly awaited liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend due to adverse meteorological factors at the Florida launch site.

Mission Postponement Reasons

Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground led to early setbacks, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch ended, leaving managers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.

Competition between Blue Origin and Musk's space company has been intensifying in recent months.

Rescheduled Attempt

To ease traffic in the skies during the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs starting the beginning of the week.

After scrubbing the launch, Blue Origin said on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was aiming for another attempt as early as Wednesday within a time slot of afternoon hours EST.

Launch Goals

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

The mission will also act as a key test of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would prove a major advancement for the firm if accomplished.

Earlier Mission

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

But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be recoverable, failed to make its landing on a ocean-based target in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during descent.

Recovery Efforts

For this new mission Blue Origin will make another attempt to recover the first stage.

Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has managed that feat.

Industry Competition

The competing companies of billionaires Bezos and Musk are locked in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency opened up proposals for its planned moon mission, noting that SpaceX was lagging behind.

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

Increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to liftoff.”

“Additional missions means greater innovation in space,” an ex-agency official said. “It isn't a negative to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”