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Blue Origin, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to delay the eagerly awaited launch of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday due to adverse weather factors at the Florida launch site.

Mission Postponement Reasons

Precipitation and a ground system issue led to initial delays, then came thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch closed, leaving mission controllers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.

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

Rescheduled Attempt

To relieve airspace congestion during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs starting the beginning of the week.

After scrubbing the launch, Blue Origin said late Sunday that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was targeting a new try as early as Wednesday within a window of afternoon hours EST.

Mission Objectives

Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will transport NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, in an effort to examine the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of sending people there.

Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a key test of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the firm if accomplished.

Previous Flight

New Glenn’s inaugural flight in the start of the year was marked as a achievement, as its cargo reached space and successfully performed experiments.

But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be recoverable, failed to make its touchdown on a platform in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during the return phase.

Recovery Efforts

For this new mission the launch provider will make another attempt to recover the first stage.

Until now, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.

Industry Competition

The competing companies of tycoons Bezos and Musk are locked in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as the space agency began accepting bids for its planned moon mission, noting that one company was lagging behind.

Donald Trump’s second term has seen the administration pile pressure on NASA to speed up its timeline to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface amid a race with China.

Increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “expand our options with regard to launch.”

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