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Blue Origin, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the highly anticipated liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend because of adverse meteorological factors at Cape Canaveral.

Launch Delay Reasons

Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground caused early setbacks, followed by thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch closed, leaving managers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.

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

Rescheduled Attempt

To relieve traffic in the skies during the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.

Following the cancellation of the mission, the company said on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was aiming for another attempt as early 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 transport NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, in an effort to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of human exploration.

Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a crucial trial of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would prove a major advancement for the firm if accomplished.

Previous Flight

New Glenn’s inaugural flight in the start of the year was marked as a success, as its cargo achieved orbit and completed experiments.

But its main rocket section, which was designed as reusable, did not stick its touchdown on a platform in the ocean, and instead was lost during descent.

Landing Attempts

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

Until now, only SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.

Industry Competition

Rival firms of tycoons Musk and Bezos are locked in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as NASA opened up bids for its lunar exploration program, noting that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.

The current administration has involved the government pile pressure on NASA to speed up its timeline to launch astronauts to the lunar surface in competition against the Asian nation.

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

“More launches means more ideas in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It can’t be a bad thing to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”