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The aerospace company, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the eagerly awaited launch of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend because of adverse meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral.

Mission Postponement Reasons

Rainfall and a ground system issue led to initial delays, then came thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch ended, forcing managers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.

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

New Launch Window

To ease traffic in the skies amid the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs starting Monday.

Following the cancellation of the launch, Blue Origin announced late Sunday that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was targeting another attempt as soon as midweek within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.

Mission Objectives

When it eventually launches, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will transport the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, to study the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of human exploration.

Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a key test of its ability to perform reusable rocket landing, which would prove a major advancement for the company if successful.

Earlier Mission

New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was considered a achievement, as its payload achieved orbit and successfully performed experiments.

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

Recovery Efforts

In its second effort the launch provider will try once more to land the booster stage.

Thus far, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.

Space Race

The competing companies of tycoons Bezos and Musk are engaged in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as the space agency opened up proposals for its lunar exploration program, complaining that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.

The current administration has involved the administration pile pressure on NASA to speed up its timeline to launch astronauts to the Moon amid a race with the Asian nation.

More rivalry 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 can’t be a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”