🔗 Share this article Blue Origin's Latest Rocket Launch Postponed Due to Poor Weather Conditions The aerospace company, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, was forced to postpone the eagerly awaited liftoff of its New Glenn rocket on the weekend because of unfavorable meteorological conditions at Cape Canaveral. Mission Postponement Reasons Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground led to initial delays, followed by thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch ended, forcing mission controllers to reschedule the rocket’s planned second mission. Rivalry between Bezos' firm and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been heating up in recent months. New Launch Window To ease airspace congestion during the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs starting the beginning of the week. After scrubbing the mission, the company announced on Sunday evening that, working alongside the FAA, it was aiming for a new try as early as Wednesday within a window of afternoon hours EST. Launch Goals Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot New Glenn rocket will transport NASA’s two Mars-bound probes to Mars, to study the planet’s climate history with the eventual hope of sending people there. Blue Origin’s launch will also serve as a key test of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would represent a technical breakthrough for the firm if accomplished. Previous Flight New Glenn’s inaugural flight in the start of the year was marked as a success, as its cargo reached space and completed experiments. But its main rocket section, which was designed as reusable, did not stick its touchdown on a ocean-based target in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during descent. Landing Attempts In its second effort Blue Origin will make another attempt to recover the booster stage. Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment. Space Race Rival firms of billionaires Musk and Bezos are engaged in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as NASA opened up bids for its planned moon mission, noting that SpaceX was falling behind schedule. The current administration has involved the government pile pressure on the agency to speed up its timeline to launch astronauts to the lunar surface in competition against the Asian nation. Increased competition between the two firms could “give us more choices with regard to launch.” “Additional missions means more ideas in space,” a former NASA chief technologist stated. “It isn't a negative to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”