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The aerospace company, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the highly anticipated liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend because of adverse meteorological conditions at the Florida launch site.

Mission Postponement Reasons

Rainfall and a ground system issue led to early setbacks, followed by thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch closed, leaving mission controllers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.

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

Rescheduled Attempt

To ease airspace congestion amid the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting private space launches starting the beginning of the week.

Following the cancellation of the launch, the company announced on Sunday evening that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was targeting another attempt as soon as Wednesday within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.

Launch Goals

When it eventually launches, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will transport NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, in an effort 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 considered a success, as its cargo achieved orbit and successfully performed experiments.

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

Recovery Efforts

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

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

Space Race

The competing companies of tycoons Musk and Bezos are engaged in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency began accepting bids for its planned moon mission, complaining that SpaceX was lagging behind.

Donald Trump’s second term has seen the administration push NASA to accelerate its progress to launch astronauts to the Moon amid a race with the Asian nation.

More rivalry between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to launch.”

“More launches means more ideas in space,” an ex-agency official stated. “It can’t be a bad thing to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”