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The aerospace company, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the highly anticipated launch of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend due to adverse meteorological conditions at the Florida launch site.

Launch Delay Reasons

Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground caused initial delays, then came cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch ended, forcing managers 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.

Rescheduled Attempt

To relieve airspace congestion during the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs starting Monday.

After scrubbing the mission, the company said on Sunday evening that, working alongside the FAA, it was aiming for another attempt as soon as Wednesday within a time slot of afternoon hours EST.

Launch Goals

When it eventually launches, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will transport NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, in an effort to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of human exploration.

The mission will also serve as a key test of its ability to perform reusable rocket landing, which would prove a major advancement for the firm if accomplished.

Previous Flight

The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was marked as a success, as its payload reached space and completed experiments.

But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, failed to make its landing on a platform in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.

Landing Attempts

For this new mission the launch provider will try once more to land the booster stage.

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

Industry Competition

The competing companies of tycoons Bezos and Musk are locked in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as NASA began accepting proposals for its planned moon mission, complaining that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.

Donald Trump’s second term has seen the administration push the agency to speed up its timeline to launch astronauts to the Moon in competition against the Asian nation.

More rivalry between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to liftoff.”

“More launches means greater innovation in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It can’t be a negative to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”