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The aerospace company, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to delay the highly anticipated launch of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend because of unfavorable weather conditions at the Florida launch site.

Launch Delay Causes

Rainfall and a ground system issue led to early setbacks, then came cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window closed, forcing mission controllers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.

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

Rescheduled Attempt

To ease traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is restricting private space launches from the beginning of the week.

Following the cancellation of the launch, Blue Origin announced late Sunday that, working alongside the FAA, it was targeting another attempt as early as midweek within a window of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.

Mission Objectives

Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of human exploration.

Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a key test of its ability to perform reusable rocket landing, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the company if accomplished.

Previous Flight

The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was considered a achievement, as its payload reached space and completed experiments.

But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, failed to make its landing on a ocean-based target in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during descent.

Landing Attempts

In its second effort Blue Origin will make another attempt to recover the booster stage.

Until now, only SpaceX has managed that feat.

Industry Competition

Rival firms of billionaires Musk and Bezos are engaged in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as NASA began accepting bids for its lunar exploration program, complaining that one company was lagging behind.

The current administration has seen the government pile pressure on NASA to accelerate its timeline to send a crewed mission to the Moon in competition against the Asian nation.

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

“Additional missions means greater innovation in space,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It can’t be a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”