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The aerospace company, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the eagerly awaited liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday because of adverse weather conditions at the Florida launch site.

Mission Postponement Reasons

Precipitation and a ground system issue caused early setbacks, then came cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch ended, leaving managers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.

Competition between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been intensifying in recent months.

New Launch Window

To relieve airspace congestion amid the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from the beginning of the week.

After scrubbing the launch, Blue Origin announced late Sunday that, in coordination with the FAA, it was targeting a new try as early as midweek within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.

Mission Objectives

When it eventually launches, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle 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 whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would prove a major advancement for the company if successful.

Previous Flight

New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was considered a success, as its cargo reached space and successfully performed experiments.

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

Recovery Efforts

In its second effort the launch provider will try once more to recover the first stage.

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

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 proposals for its planned moon mission, complaining that one company was lagging behind.

Donald Trump’s second term has seen the administration pile pressure on NASA to accelerate its progress to launch astronauts to the Moon amid a race with the Asian nation.

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

“More launches means greater innovation in space,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It isn't a negative to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”