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The aerospace company, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the highly anticipated liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend because of adverse weather factors at Cape Canaveral.

Mission Postponement Reasons

Rainfall and a ground system issue led to early setbacks, followed by thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window closed, forcing mission controllers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.

Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been intensifying in the past few months.

New Launch Window

To ease traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs starting the beginning of the week.

Following the cancellation of the launch, Blue Origin announced late Sunday that, in coordination with the FAA, it was targeting a new try as early as Wednesday within a time slot of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.

Launch Goals

When it eventually launches, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will transport the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to Mars, to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of sending people there.

The mission will also act as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would represent a major advancement for the company if accomplished.

Previous Flight

The rocket's first launch in January was marked as a success, as its cargo reached space and successfully performed experiments.

But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, failed to make its landing on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and instead was lost during descent.

Landing Attempts

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

Until now, only SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.

Industry Competition

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

The current administration has seen the administration pile pressure on NASA to accelerate its progress to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface in competition against China.

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

“More launches means more ideas in orbit,” an ex-agency official said. “It isn't a bad thing to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”