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Blue Origin, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the highly anticipated launch of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend due to unfavorable meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral.

Launch Delay Causes

Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground caused initial delays, followed by thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window closed, forcing mission controllers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.

Competition between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in the past few months.

Rescheduled Attempt

To ease traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs starting the beginning of the week.

Following the cancellation of the mission, the company announced late Sunday that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was targeting another attempt as soon as midweek within a time slot of afternoon hours EST.

Mission Objectives

Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will carry the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of human exploration.

Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a key test of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would prove a major advancement for the firm if accomplished.

Earlier Mission

The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was considered a achievement, as its cargo achieved orbit and successfully performed experiments.

But its main rocket section, which was designed as reusable, did not stick its landing on a platform in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.

Landing Attempts

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

Until now, only SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.

Space Race

Rival firms of tycoons Bezos and Musk 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, complaining that one company was falling behind schedule.

Donald Trump’s second term has seen the administration push NASA to speed up its timeline to launch astronauts to the Moon amid a race with China.

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

“Additional missions means more ideas in space,” an ex-agency official said. “It can’t be a bad thing to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”