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Blue Origin, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to delay the highly anticipated liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday due to unfavorable weather factors at the Florida launch site.

Launch Delay Reasons

Rainfall and a ground system issue led to initial delays, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window ended, forcing mission controllers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.

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

New Launch Window

To relieve traffic in the skies amid the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.

Following the cancellation of the launch, the company announced late Sunday that, in coordination with the FAA, it was targeting another attempt as early as midweek within a window of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.

Mission Objectives

When it eventually launches, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft 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 act as a key test of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the company if successful.

Previous Flight

New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was considered a success, as its payload reached space and completed tests.

But its main rocket section, which was designed as recoverable, failed to make its touchdown on a platform in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during descent.

Recovery Efforts

In its second effort Blue Origin will try once more to land the booster stage.

Thus far, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.

Space Race

Rival firms of tycoons Bezos and Musk are locked in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as NASA opened up bids for its lunar exploration program, complaining that one company was falling behind schedule.

The current administration has seen the administration push the agency to accelerate its timeline to send a crewed mission to the Moon amid a race with China.

Increased competition between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”

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