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Blue Origin, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, was forced to delay the eagerly awaited liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend due to adverse meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral.

Launch Delay Reasons

Precipitation and a ground system issue caused early setbacks, followed by thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch closed, leaving mission controllers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight.

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

New Launch Window

To relieve traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting private space launches starting the beginning of the week.

After scrubbing the launch, the company said on Sunday evening that, working alongside the FAA, it was targeting another attempt as soon as midweek within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time.

Launch Goals

When it eventually launches, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to the Red Planet, in an effort to study the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of sending people there.

Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve reusable rocket landing, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the company if accomplished.

Previous Flight

The rocket's first launch in the start of the year was marked as a achievement, as its cargo reached space and successfully performed tests.

But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be reusable, did not stick its landing on a ocean-based target in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during descent.

Recovery Efforts

For this new mission Blue Origin will make another attempt to land the booster stage.

Until now, only SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.

Industry Competition

The competing companies of tycoons Bezos and Musk are locked in a commercial space race that has grown more intense lately, as the space agency opened up bids for its planned moon mission, noting that SpaceX was falling behind schedule.

The current administration has involved the government push the agency to accelerate its timeline to send a crewed mission to the lunar surface in competition against China.

More rivalry between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to launch.”

“Additional missions means more ideas in space,” an ex-agency official stated. “It isn't a negative to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”