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Blue Origin, owned by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the eagerly awaited liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday due to adverse weather conditions at the Florida launch site.

Mission Postponement Causes

Precipitation and a ground system issue led to early setbacks, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window ended, leaving managers to reschedule the vehicle's upcoming flight.

Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Musk's space company has been intensifying in the past few months.

Rescheduled Attempt

To relieve airspace congestion during the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from the beginning of the week.

Following the cancellation of the launch, the company announced on Sunday evening that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was aiming for another attempt as early as Wednesday within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST.

Launch Goals

When it eventually launches, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will carry NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to the Red Planet, in an effort to examine the Martian atmospheric past with the eventual hope of human exploration.

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

Previous Flight

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

But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be recoverable, failed to make its landing on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and instead was lost during descent.

Landing Attempts

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

Until now, only SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment.

Industry Competition

The competing companies of tycoons Musk and Bezos are engaged in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as the space agency opened up bids for its planned moon mission, noting that one company was falling behind schedule.

Donald Trump’s second term has involved the government pile pressure on NASA to speed up its progress to launch astronauts to the Moon in competition against the Asian nation.

Increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to launch.”

“More launches means greater innovation in space,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It isn't a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”