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Blue Origin, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the eagerly awaited launch of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday due to adverse meteorological factors at the Florida launch site.

Mission Postponement Causes

Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground caused early setbacks, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch ended, forcing mission controllers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.

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

Rescheduled Attempt

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

Following the cancellation of the mission, Blue Origin announced late Sunday that, in coordination with 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 carry the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, in an effort to study the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of human exploration.

The mission will also serve as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would prove a major advancement for the company if accomplished.

Previous Flight

The rocket's first launch in January was considered a achievement, as its payload reached space and successfully performed experiments.

But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, failed to make its touchdown on a platform in the ocean, and instead was lost during the return phase.

Recovery Efforts

For this new mission the launch provider will make another attempt to recover the booster stage.

Thus far, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.

Space Race

The competing companies of billionaires Bezos and Musk are engaged in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as NASA opened up bids for its lunar exploration program, complaining that one company was lagging behind.

The current administration has involved the government pile pressure on NASA to accelerate its progress to launch astronauts to the lunar surface in competition against China.

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

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