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Blue Origin, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the eagerly awaited liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday due to adverse meteorological factors at Cape Canaveral.

Launch Delay Reasons

Rainfall and a ground system issue led to early setbacks, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window ended, leaving mission controllers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.

Rivalry between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been intensifying in the past few months.

Rescheduled Attempt

To relieve traffic in the skies during the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs starting the beginning of the week.

After scrubbing the mission, the company announced on Sunday evening that, working alongside the FAA, it was aiming for another attempt as early as Wednesday within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.

Mission Objectives

Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will carry NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, in an effort to examine the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of human exploration.

Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a crucial trial of its ability to perform reusable rocket landing, which would represent a major advancement for the firm if accomplished.

Previous Flight

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

But its first-stage booster, which was designed as recoverable, failed to make its landing on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and instead was lost during the return phase.

Recovery Efforts

In its second effort the launch provider will try once more to land the booster stage.

Until now, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.

Space Race

The competing companies of tycoons Bezos and Musk are locked in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as NASA opened up proposals for its lunar exploration program, noting that one company was lagging behind.

The current administration has involved the government pile pressure on the agency to speed up its progress to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface in competition against China.

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

“Additional missions means more ideas in space,” an ex-agency official stated. “It isn't a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”