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Blue Origin, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the highly anticipated launch of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend because of adverse meteorological conditions at the Florida launch site.

Mission Postponement Reasons

Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground led to early setbacks, then came thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch closed, leaving managers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.

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

Rescheduled Attempt

To ease traffic in the skies amid the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from the beginning of the week.

After scrubbing the mission, the company announced on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was aiming for another attempt as early as Wednesday within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.

Launch Goals

Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will transport NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, to examine the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of human exploration.

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 firm if accomplished.

Earlier Mission

New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was marked as a achievement, as its cargo achieved orbit and completed experiments.

But its first-stage booster, which was designed as reusable, did not stick its landing on a platform in the ocean, and instead was lost during descent.

Landing Attempts

For this new mission Blue Origin will make another attempt to recover the first stage.

Until now, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.

Space Race

Rival firms of tycoons Bezos and Musk are locked in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency began accepting bids for its lunar exploration program, complaining that SpaceX was lagging behind.

The current administration has involved the administration pile pressure on the agency to accelerate its timeline to launch astronauts to the Moon in competition against the Asian nation.

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

“More launches means greater innovation in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It can’t be a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”