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Blue Origin, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the eagerly awaited liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday due to adverse meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral.

Mission Postponement Reasons

Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground caused early setbacks, followed by thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch closed, leaving managers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.

Competition between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been heating up in recent months.

New Launch Window

To ease traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is limiting private space launches starting the beginning of the week.

Following the cancellation of the mission, the company said on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was targeting another attempt as soon as midweek within a time slot of afternoon hours EST.

Launch Goals

Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will carry NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, to examine the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of sending people there.

The mission will also act as a key test of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would prove a technical breakthrough for the company if accomplished.

Earlier Mission

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

But its first-stage booster, which was designed as recoverable, did not stick its touchdown on a platform in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during descent.

Landing Attempts

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

Thus far, only SpaceX has managed that accomplishment.

Space Race

Rival firms of billionaires Musk and Bezos are engaged in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency began accepting bids for its planned moon mission, noting that SpaceX was lagging behind.

Donald Trump’s second term has involved the administration pile pressure on the agency to accelerate its timeline to send a crewed mission to the Moon amid a race with China.

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

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