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Blue Origin, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to delay the eagerly awaited liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend because of adverse weather factors at the Florida launch site.

Launch Delay Causes

Rainfall and a ground system issue led to initial delays, followed by thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window closed, leaving mission controllers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.

Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been intensifying in the past few months.

New Launch Window

To ease airspace congestion amid the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.

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 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.

Mission Objectives

Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter New Glenn rocket will transport the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, in an effort 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 its ability to perform booster recovery, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the company if successful.

Previous Flight

New Glenn’s inaugural flight in the start of the year was marked as a success, as its payload reached space and completed tests.

But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, failed to make its landing on a platform in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during descent.

Landing Attempts

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

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

Industry Competition

Rival firms of tycoons Musk and Bezos are engaged in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency began accepting proposals for its lunar exploration program, noting that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.

Donald Trump’s second term has seen the government push the agency to accelerate its progress to send a crewed mission to the Moon in competition against the Asian nation.

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

“Additional missions means more ideas in space,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It can’t be a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”