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Blue Origin, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the eagerly awaited liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend because of unfavorable meteorological factors at Cape Canaveral.

Mission Postponement Causes

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 push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.

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

Rescheduled Attempt

To ease traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday.

Following the cancellation of the launch, Blue Origin said on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was aiming for another attempt as soon as midweek within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.

Mission Objectives

Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will carry the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to Mars, to study the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of human exploration.

Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a crucial trial of its ability to perform reusable rocket landing, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the firm if accomplished.

Previous Flight

New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was marked as a success, as its cargo achieved orbit and successfully performed experiments.

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 instead was lost during the return phase.

Recovery Efforts

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

Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that feat.

Space Race

The competing companies of billionaires Musk and Bezos are locked in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as the space agency began accepting proposals for its planned moon mission, noting that one company was lagging behind.

Donald Trump’s second term has seen the government push NASA to speed up its progress to launch astronauts to the lunar surface in competition against China.

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

“More launches 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.”