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The aerospace company, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the eagerly awaited launch of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday because of adverse meteorological conditions at the Florida launch site.

Launch Delay Causes

Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground caused early setbacks, then came cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window ended, leaving managers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.

Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in recent months.

New Launch Window

To relieve airspace congestion during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.

After scrubbing the mission, Blue Origin said late Sunday that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was aiming for a new try as early as Wednesday within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.

Launch Goals

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

Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a crucial trial of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the firm if successful.

Previous Flight

New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was considered a achievement, as its cargo achieved orbit and successfully performed tests.

But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, did not stick its landing on a platform in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.

Recovery Efforts

For this new mission Blue Origin will try once more to land the first stage.

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

Industry Competition

The competing companies of tycoons Musk and Bezos are locked in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency began accepting proposals for its lunar exploration program, noting that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.

The current administration has involved the administration pile pressure on NASA to accelerate its timeline to launch astronauts 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.”

“More launches means more ideas in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It can’t be a negative to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”