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The aerospace company, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the eagerly awaited launch of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday due to adverse meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral.

Launch Delay Causes

Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground caused initial delays, followed by thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch ended, leaving mission controllers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.

Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been heating up in the past few months.

Rescheduled Attempt

To ease traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs starting the beginning of the week.

After scrubbing the mission, the company said late Sunday that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was targeting another attempt as soon as midweek within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.

Launch Goals

Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will carry the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to Mars, in an effort to study the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of sending people there.

The mission will also act as a key test of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would represent a major advancement for the firm if accomplished.

Previous Flight

New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was marked as a achievement, as its cargo reached space and successfully performed tests.

But its main rocket section, which was designed as recoverable, did not stick 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 first stage.

Thus far, only SpaceX has managed that feat.

Industry Competition

The competing companies of billionaires Bezos and Musk are engaged in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as NASA began accepting proposals for its lunar exploration program, complaining that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.

Donald Trump’s second term has seen the administration pile pressure on NASA to accelerate its progress to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface amid a race with China.

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

“Additional missions means greater innovation in orbit,” an ex-agency official stated. “It can’t be a negative to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”