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Blue Origin, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the eagerly awaited liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday because of unfavorable meteorological factors at Cape Canaveral.

Mission Postponement Causes

Rainfall and a ground system issue caused early setbacks, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window ended, 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.

Rescheduled Attempt

To relieve traffic in the skies amid the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is limiting private space launches starting Monday.

After scrubbing the mission, Blue Origin announced on Sunday evening that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was targeting another attempt as soon as Wednesday within a time slot of afternoon hours EST.

Launch Goals

Upon successful liftoff, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will transport NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, in an effort to study the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of sending people there.

The mission will also act as a crucial trial of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would represent a major advancement for the firm if accomplished.

Previous Flight

The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was considered a achievement, as its payload achieved orbit and completed experiments.

But its main rocket section, which was meant to be recoverable, did not stick its touchdown on a platform in the ocean, and ended up destroyed during the return phase.

Landing Attempts

In its second effort the launch provider will make another attempt to recover the first stage.

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

Space Race

Rival firms of billionaires Bezos and Musk are locked in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as NASA opened up proposals for its planned moon mission, noting that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.

The current administration has seen the administration push NASA to speed up its progress to launch astronauts to the lunar surface amid a race with China.

More rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “expand our options with regard to liftoff.”

“Additional missions means more ideas in space,” a former NASA chief technologist said. “It can’t be a negative to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”