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Blue Origin, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the eagerly awaited launch of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday due to unfavorable weather factors at the Florida launch site.

Mission Postponement Reasons

Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground led to initial delays, then came thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch ended, leaving managers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.

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

Rescheduled Attempt

To ease airspace congestion amid the US federal government shutdown, the aviation regulator is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs starting Monday.

Following the cancellation of the mission, Blue Origin said late Sunday that, working alongside the FAA, it was targeting a new try as early as midweek within a window of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.

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 study the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of human exploration.

Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would represent a major advancement for the firm if successful.

Earlier Mission

The rocket's first launch in January was marked as a achievement, as its cargo achieved orbit and completed tests.

But its first-stage booster, which was designed as recoverable, failed to make its touchdown on a platform in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during descent.

Landing Attempts

For this new mission Blue Origin will try once more to recover the booster stage.

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

Space Race

The competing companies of billionaires Bezos and Musk are locked in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as NASA began accepting bids for its planned moon mission, noting that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.

The current administration has seen the government pile pressure on the agency to speed up its progress to launch astronauts to the Moon amid a race with the Asian nation.

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

“More launches means greater innovation in space,” an ex-agency official stated. “It can’t be a negative to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”