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Blue Origin, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the eagerly awaited liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend because of adverse weather conditions at Cape Canaveral.

Mission Postponement Reasons

Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground caused early setbacks, followed by thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch closed, forcing managers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.

Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been heating up in recent months.

Rescheduled Attempt

To ease airspace congestion amid the US federal government shutdown, the aviation regulator is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from the beginning of the week.

Following the cancellation of the mission, Blue Origin said on Sunday evening that, working alongside the FAA, it was targeting another attempt as early as Wednesday within a time slot 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, in an effort to examine the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of sending people there.

Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a crucial trial of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the company if successful.

Earlier Mission

New Glenn’s inaugural flight in the start of the year was considered a success, as its payload reached space 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 the return phase.

Recovery Efforts

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

Until now, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.

Space Race

Rival firms of billionaires Musk and Bezos are engaged in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as the space agency opened up proposals for its lunar exploration program, complaining that one company was lagging behind.

Donald Trump’s second term has seen the administration pile pressure on the agency to accelerate its progress to send a crewed mission to the Moon amid a race with the Asian nation.

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

“Additional missions means greater innovation in space,” an ex-agency official stated. “It isn't a bad thing to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”