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Blue Origin, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the highly anticipated liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday due to adverse weather factors at Cape Canaveral.

Launch Delay Causes

Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground led to initial delays, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window closed, leaving mission controllers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.

Competition between Bezos' firm and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in the past few months.

New Launch Window

To ease airspace congestion amid the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.

After scrubbing the launch, Blue Origin announced on Sunday evening that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was targeting another attempt as soon as midweek within a window of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.

Launch Goals

When it eventually launches, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will carry NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to Mars, to study the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of sending people there.

Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a key test of its ability to perform reusable rocket landing, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the company if successful.

Previous Flight

The rocket's first launch in January was marked as a success, as its payload reached space and completed experiments.

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

Recovery Efforts

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

Thus far, only SpaceX has managed that feat.

Industry Competition

Rival firms of tycoons Musk and Bezos are locked in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as NASA opened up proposals for its lunar exploration program, noting that SpaceX was lagging behind.

Donald Trump’s second term has involved the government pile pressure on NASA to accelerate its timeline to send a crewed mission to the Moon in competition against China.

More rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “expand our options with regard to liftoff.”

“Additional missions means greater innovation in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It can’t be a bad thing to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”