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The aerospace company, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to delay the highly anticipated launch of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday due to unfavorable meteorological factors at Cape Canaveral.

Launch Delay Reasons

Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground led to initial delays, then came cumulus cloud cover as the narrow time frame for launch ended, leaving managers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.

Rivalry between Blue Origin and Musk's space company has been heating up in the past few months.

Rescheduled Attempt

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

After scrubbing the mission, the company said on Sunday evening that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was targeting another attempt as soon as midweek within a window of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time.

Mission Objectives

Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will transport the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, in an effort to examine the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of human exploration.

Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a key test of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would prove a major advancement for the firm if accomplished.

Earlier Mission

The rocket's first launch in January was marked as a success, as its payload achieved orbit and completed tests.

But its main rocket section, which was meant to be reusable, failed to make its landing on a platform in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during descent.

Recovery Efforts

In its second effort Blue Origin will try once more to land the first stage.

Until now, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.

Space Race

Rival firms of billionaires Bezos and Musk are engaged in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as NASA began accepting bids for its planned moon mission, noting that one company was falling behind schedule.

Donald Trump’s second term has seen the government push NASA to accelerate its timeline to launch astronauts to the lunar surface amid a race with the Asian nation.

Increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to liftoff.”

“More launches means more ideas in orbit,” an ex-agency official said. “It can’t be a negative to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”