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Blue Origin, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to delay the eagerly awaited launch of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend due to adverse weather factors at Cape Canaveral.

Launch Delay Reasons

Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground caused initial delays, followed by thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch closed, forcing mission controllers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.

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

New Launch Window

To relieve traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting private space launches from the beginning of the week.

After scrubbing the mission, Blue Origin said late Sunday that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was aiming for a new try as early as Wednesday within a window of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.

Mission Objectives

Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, in an effort to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of sending people there.

Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the company if accomplished.

Previous Flight

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

But its main rocket section, which was meant to be reusable, did not stick its landing on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.

Recovery Efforts

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

Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.

Space Race

The competing companies of billionaires Musk and Bezos are locked in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as the space agency opened up bids for its lunar exploration program, complaining that one company was falling behind schedule.

Donald Trump’s second term has involved the administration pile pressure on the agency to speed up its progress to send a crewed mission to the Moon amid a race with 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 stated. “It isn't a negative to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”