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The aerospace company, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the highly anticipated launch of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend because of unfavorable weather factors at Cape Canaveral.

Mission Postponement Causes

Rainfall and a ground system issue led to initial delays, then came thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch ended, leaving managers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.

Rivalry between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in recent months.

Rescheduled Attempt

To relieve airspace congestion amid the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.

After scrubbing the mission, Blue Origin announced on Sunday evening that, working alongside the FAA, it was aiming for a new try as early as midweek within a time slot of afternoon hours EST.

Launch Goals

Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will carry the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, to study 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 booster recovery, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the company if accomplished.

Earlier Mission

New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was considered a achievement, as its payload achieved orbit and completed tests.

But its main rocket section, which was designed as recoverable, failed to make its landing on a platform in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.

Recovery Efforts

In its second effort the launch provider will make another attempt to recover the first stage.

Thus far, only SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.

Industry Competition

Rival firms of billionaires Musk and Bezos are engaged in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency opened up bids for its planned moon mission, complaining that one company was falling behind schedule.

The current administration has involved the government push NASA to accelerate its progress to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface amid a race with China.

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

“Additional missions means greater innovation in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It can’t be a negative to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”