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The aerospace company, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to delay the eagerly awaited liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday due to adverse meteorological factors at the Florida launch site.

Mission Postponement Reasons

Rainfall and a ground system issue led to early setbacks, followed by thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch ended, leaving mission controllers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.

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

Rescheduled Attempt

To ease traffic in the skies amid the US federal government shutdown, the aviation regulator is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.

After scrubbing the launch, Blue Origin said on Sunday evening that, working alongside the FAA, it was aiming for a new try as early as midweek within a window of afternoon hours EST.

Mission Objectives

Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will transport NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, to study the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of human exploration.

The mission will also act as a crucial trial of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the firm if accomplished.

Earlier Mission

The rocket's first launch in January was marked as a achievement, as its payload achieved orbit and successfully performed tests.

But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, did not stick its landing on a ocean-based target in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during the return phase.

Landing Attempts

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

Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.

Space Race

The competing companies of tycoons Musk and Bezos are locked in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as the space agency opened up bids for its lunar exploration program, complaining that one company was lagging behind.

Donald Trump’s second term has seen the government pile pressure on NASA to accelerate its progress to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface in competition against the Asian nation.

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

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