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The aerospace company, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the highly anticipated liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday because of unfavorable weather conditions at the Florida launch site.

Mission Postponement Causes

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

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

New Launch Window

To ease airspace congestion amid the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs starting Monday.

After scrubbing the mission, the company said on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was aiming for another attempt as soon as midweek within a window of afternoon hours EST.

Mission Objectives

Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will transport the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, in an effort to study the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal of sending people there.

The mission will also serve as a key test of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would represent a major advancement for the company if successful.

Earlier Mission

New Glenn’s inaugural flight in the start of the year was marked as a success, as its cargo achieved orbit and completed tests.

But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, failed to make its landing on a platform in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during descent.

Recovery Efforts

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

Thus far, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.

Industry Competition

The competing companies of tycoons Musk and Bezos are engaged in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as NASA opened up bids for its lunar exploration program, complaining that SpaceX was lagging behind.

The current administration has involved the government push the agency to accelerate its timeline to launch astronauts to the Moon in competition against the Asian nation.

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

“More launches means more ideas in orbit,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It can’t be a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”