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The aerospace company, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the eagerly awaited launch of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday because of unfavorable meteorological factors at the Florida launch site.

Mission Postponement Reasons

Rainfall and a ground system issue led to early setbacks, then came cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch ended, forcing mission controllers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.

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

New Launch Window

To ease traffic in the skies amid the US federal government shutdown, the aviation regulator is limiting private space launches starting Monday.

Following the cancellation of the launch, Blue Origin said late Sunday that, in coordination with the FAA, it was aiming for another attempt as early as midweek within a time slot of afternoon hours EST.

Mission Objectives

Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will carry the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, in an effort to study the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of sending people there.

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 company 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 main rocket section, which was meant to be recoverable, did not stick its landing on a platform in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.

Landing Attempts

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

Thus far, only SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.

Space Race

The competing companies of tycoons Bezos and Musk are engaged in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as NASA opened up bids for its lunar exploration program, noting that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.

Donald Trump’s second term has seen the government push NASA to speed up its timeline to launch astronauts to the Moon in competition against China.

Increased competition between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to liftoff.”

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