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Blue Origin, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the highly anticipated launch of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend due to unfavorable meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral.

Mission Postponement Reasons

Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground led to early setbacks, followed by thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch ended, leaving mission controllers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.

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

Rescheduled Attempt

To relieve traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting private space launches from Monday.

Following the cancellation of the launch, Blue Origin announced on Sunday evening that, working alongside the FAA, it was aiming for another attempt as soon as midweek within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.

Mission Objectives

Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will transport NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of human exploration.

The mission will also act as a key test of its ability to perform reusable rocket landing, which would prove a major advancement for the company if successful.

Previous Flight

New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was marked as a success, as its cargo achieved orbit and successfully performed experiments.

But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, did not stick its touchdown on a ocean-based target 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 first stage.

Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.

Space Race

The competing companies of billionaires Bezos and Musk are engaged in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as the space agency began accepting bids for its lunar exploration program, noting that SpaceX was lagging behind.

Donald Trump’s second term has seen the administration push NASA to speed up its progress to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface amid a race with China.

More rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to liftoff.”

“More launches means more ideas in space,” an ex-agency official said. “It isn't a negative to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”