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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 adverse meteorological factors at Cape Canaveral.

Mission Postponement Reasons

Rainfall and a ground system issue caused early setbacks, then came thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch ended, leaving managers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission.

Competition between Bezos' firm and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been intensifying in recent months.

Rescheduled Attempt

To ease traffic in the skies amid the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs from the beginning of the week.

After scrubbing the mission, Blue Origin said late Sunday that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was targeting another attempt as early as Wednesday within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.

Mission Objectives

When it eventually launches, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, in an effort to study the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of human exploration.

Blue Origin’s launch will also serve 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 achievement, as its payload reached space and successfully performed tests.

But its first-stage booster, which was designed as reusable, failed to make its touchdown on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.

Landing Attempts

For this new mission the launch provider will make another attempt to land the first stage.

Thus far, only SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.

Space Race

Rival firms of tycoons Musk and Bezos are engaged in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as NASA began accepting bids for its planned moon mission, complaining that one company was lagging behind.

Donald Trump’s second term has seen the administration pile pressure on NASA to accelerate its timeline to launch astronauts to the lunar surface amid a race with China.

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

“Additional missions means greater innovation in orbit,” an ex-agency official stated. “It can’t be a negative to have the competitor, even not in the lead.”