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Blue Origin, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to delay the eagerly awaited launch of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday because of unfavorable meteorological factors at the Florida launch site.

Mission Postponement Reasons

Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground caused initial delays, then came thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window closed, leaving managers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission.

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

New Launch Window

To ease airspace congestion amid the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting private space launches from the beginning of the week.

Following the cancellation of the launch, Blue Origin said 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 Eastern Standard time.

Launch Goals

When it eventually launches, the 98-meter tall launch vehicle will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, to study the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of human exploration.

Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a key test of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would represent a major advancement for the firm if successful.

Earlier Mission

The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was marked as a success, as its cargo achieved orbit and successfully performed experiments.

But its first-stage booster, which was designed as reusable, did not stick its touchdown on a platform in the ocean, and instead was lost during descent.

Recovery Efforts

For this new mission the launch provider will try once more to land the first stage.

Until now, only SpaceX has achieved that feat.

Industry Competition

Rival firms of tycoons Musk and Bezos are locked in a private sector space competition that has grown more intense lately, as NASA began accepting bids for its lunar exploration program, noting that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.

Donald Trump’s second term has seen the administration push NASA to accelerate its timeline to launch astronauts to the Moon in competition against China.

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

“More launches means greater innovation in orbit,” an ex-agency official stated. “It can’t be a negative to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”