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Blue Origin, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the eagerly awaited launch of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend due to adverse weather factors at Cape Canaveral.

Launch Delay Causes

Precipitation and a ground system issue caused initial delays, then came thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch closed, leaving managers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.

Competition between Bezos' firm and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been intensifying in recent months.

New Launch Window

To ease traffic in the skies during the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs starting Monday.

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

Launch Goals

When it eventually launches, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will transport the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, in an effort to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of sending people there.

The mission will also act as a key test of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the company if successful.

Previous Flight

The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was marked as a achievement, as its cargo reached space and completed experiments.

But its main rocket section, which was meant to be reusable, failed to make its landing on a ocean-based target 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 first stage.

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

Industry Competition

Rival firms of billionaires Musk and Bezos are locked in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as NASA began accepting bids for its planned moon mission, noting that one company was lagging behind.

Donald Trump’s second term has involved the government push NASA to accelerate its timeline to launch astronauts to the Moon in competition against the Asian nation.

Increased competition between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to liftoff.”

“Additional missions means more ideas in space,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It can’t be a bad thing to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”