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Blue Origin, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to delay the highly anticipated launch of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend because of unfavorable weather conditions at Cape Canaveral.

Launch Delay Causes

Precipitation and a ground system issue caused initial delays, then came cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch ended, leaving mission controllers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.

Competition between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been intensifying in the past few months.

New Launch Window

To relieve traffic in the skies amid the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting private space launches from Monday.

After scrubbing the mission, the company announced on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was targeting another attempt as soon as midweek within a window of afternoon hours EST.

Launch Goals

When it eventually launches, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will transport NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, to study the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of sending people there.

The mission will also act as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the firm if successful.

Previous Flight

The rocket's first launch in January was considered a success, as its cargo achieved orbit and successfully performed tests.

But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, failed to make its landing on a ocean-based target in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during descent.

Recovery Efforts

In its second effort Blue Origin will make another attempt to land the booster stage.

Thus far, only SpaceX has managed that feat.

Space Race

Rival firms of tycoons Musk and Bezos are engaged in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as NASA opened up proposals for its lunar exploration program, noting that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.

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

More rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”

“More launches means greater innovation in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It isn't a bad thing to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”