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The aerospace company, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the eagerly awaited launch of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday due to adverse weather factors at the Florida launch site.

Launch Delay Reasons

Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground led to early setbacks, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch closed, leaving mission controllers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.

Competition between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in recent months.

Rescheduled Attempt

To ease traffic in the skies amid the US federal government shutdown, the aviation regulator is limiting private space launches from the beginning of the week.

Following the cancellation of the mission, Blue Origin announced on Sunday evening that, working alongside the FAA, it was targeting a new try as early as midweek within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.

Mission Objectives

Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will carry the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, to examine the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of sending people there.

Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a key test of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the firm if successful.

Previous Flight

New Glenn’s inaugural flight in the start of the year was considered a achievement, as its payload reached space and successfully performed tests.

But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, failed to make its landing on a platform in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.

Recovery Efforts

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

Until now, only SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.

Industry Competition

Rival firms of tycoons Musk and Bezos are locked in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency opened up bids for its planned moon mission, complaining that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.

The current administration has seen the administration push NASA to speed up its progress to send a crewed mission to the Moon in competition against the Asian nation.

Increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “expand our options with regard to launch.”

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