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Blue Origin, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the highly anticipated launch of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend because of adverse weather factors at Cape Canaveral.

Launch Delay Reasons

Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground led to early setbacks, then came thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch ended, forcing managers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.

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

New Launch Window

To ease traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.

Following the cancellation of the launch, Blue Origin said late Sunday that, working alongside the FAA, it was targeting a new try as soon as midweek within a window 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 two Mars-bound probes to Mars, to study the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of sending people there.

Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a key test of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the company if accomplished.

Earlier Mission

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

But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be recoverable, did not stick its landing on a platform in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during descent.

Landing Attempts

In its second effort Blue Origin will try once more to land the first stage.

Until now, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.

Industry Competition

Rival firms of billionaires Musk and Bezos are locked 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 SpaceX was falling behind schedule.

The current administration has seen the administration pile pressure on the agency to accelerate its progress to launch astronauts 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 more ideas in space,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It can’t be a bad thing to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”