🔗 Share this article Blue Origin's Latest Rocket Launch Postponed Due to Poor Weather Conditions The aerospace company, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the eagerly awaited launch of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday due to unfavorable weather conditions at the Florida launch site. Mission Postponement Causes Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground caused initial delays, then came thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window ended, leaving managers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission. Competition between Blue Origin and Musk's space company has been intensifying in the past few months. New Launch Window To relieve traffic in the skies during the US federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration is restricting commercial rocket liftoffs from Monday. Following the cancellation of the launch, Blue Origin announced on Sunday evening that, working alongside the FAA, it was targeting a new try as soon as midweek within a time slot of 2.50pm to 4.17pm Eastern Standard time. Launch Goals Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will transport 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 act as a crucial trial of its ability to perform booster recovery, which would prove a major advancement for the company if successful. Earlier Mission New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was marked as a achievement, as its payload achieved orbit and successfully performed tests. But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be recoverable, failed to make its landing on a platform in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during descent. Recovery Efforts For this new mission Blue Origin will try once more to recover the booster stage. Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that accomplishment. Space Race Rival firms of tycoons Bezos and Musk are locked in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as NASA began accepting bids for its planned moon mission, complaining that one company was lagging behind. Donald Trump’s second term has involved the administration push NASA to accelerate its progress to launch astronauts to the lunar surface in competition against China. Increased competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to launch.” “More launches means greater innovation in space,” an ex-agency official stated. “It isn't a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even not in the lead.”