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The aerospace company, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the highly anticipated launch of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend due to adverse meteorological factors at the Florida launch site.

Launch Delay Causes

Precipitation and a ground system issue caused early setbacks, followed by thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window ended, leaving mission controllers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.

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

New Launch Window

To relieve airspace congestion during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from the beginning of the week.

Following the cancellation of the mission, the company said on Sunday evening that, working alongside the FAA, it was targeting a new try as soon as Wednesday within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.

Launch Goals

Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will transport the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to Mars, to examine the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of human exploration.

The mission will also act as a key test of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the firm if successful.

Earlier Mission

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

But its first-stage booster, which was designed as recoverable, failed to make its touchdown on a platform in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during the return phase.

Recovery Efforts

For this new mission Blue Origin will make another attempt to land the booster stage.

Thus far, only SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.

Industry Competition

Rival firms of billionaires Bezos and Musk are locked in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as the space agency began accepting proposals for its lunar exploration program, noting that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.

The current administration has seen the government push the agency to speed up its timeline to send a crewed mission to the Moon amid a race with the Asian nation.

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

“More launches means greater innovation in orbit,” an ex-agency official said. “It can’t be a bad thing to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”