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Blue Origin, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the highly anticipated launch of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday due to unfavorable meteorological factors at Cape Canaveral.

Launch Delay Reasons

Precipitation and a ground system issue led to early setbacks, then came thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window ended, leaving mission controllers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.

Competition between Blue Origin and Musk's space company has been intensifying in recent months.

Rescheduled Attempt

To ease traffic in the skies amid 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, in coordination with the FAA, it was aiming for another attempt as soon as midweek within a window of afternoon hours 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, in an effort to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of sending people there.

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

Previous Flight

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

But its main rocket section, which was meant to be reusable, did not stick its landing 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.

Industry Competition

The competing companies of tycoons Bezos and Musk are engaged in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as NASA began accepting proposals for its planned moon mission, complaining that one company was lagging behind.

Donald Trump’s second term has involved the government push the agency to accelerate its timeline to launch astronauts to the lunar surface in competition against China.

Increased competition between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to launch.”

“More launches means more ideas in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It isn't a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”