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Blue Origin, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the highly anticipated liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday due to unfavorable meteorological factors at Cape Canaveral.

Mission Postponement Causes

Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground caused initial delays, then came cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window ended, 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 recent months.

New Launch Window

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

Following the cancellation of the mission, the company said late Sunday that, working alongside the FAA, it was targeting a new try as soon as Wednesday within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.

Mission Objectives

Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot 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.

Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a key test of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would prove a major advancement for the company if successful.

Earlier Mission

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

But its first-stage booster, which was designed as recoverable, failed to make its touchdown on a platform in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during the return phase.

Landing Attempts

In its second effort Blue Origin will try once more to recover the booster stage.

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

Industry Competition

The competing companies of tycoons Musk and Bezos are engaged in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency opened up proposals for its lunar exploration program, complaining that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.

Donald Trump’s second term has seen the government push the agency to speed up its progress to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface amid a race with China.

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

“More launches means more ideas in space,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It isn't a negative to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”