🔗 Share this article Jeff Bezos' Space Firm's Second Mission Postponed Because of Poor Atmospheric Situation The aerospace company, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the highly anticipated launch of its New Glenn rocket on Sunday due to unfavorable meteorological conditions at the Florida launch site. Mission Postponement Reasons Rainfall and a technical problem on the ground led to early setbacks, followed by cumulus cloud cover as the 88-minute launch window ended, leaving mission controllers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight. Rivalry between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been intensifying in the past few months. New Launch Window To ease traffic in the skies amid the US federal government shutdown, the aviation regulator is restricting private space launches from Monday. Following the cancellation of the launch, Blue Origin announced late Sunday that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was aiming for a new try as soon as midweek within a window of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time. Mission Objectives Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will carry the US space agency's two Mars-bound probes to Mars, in an effort to examine the planet’s climate history with the long-term goal 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 technical breakthrough for the firm if accomplished. Earlier Mission New Glenn’s inaugural flight in the start of the year was considered a success, as its cargo achieved orbit and successfully performed tests. But its main rocket section, which was meant to be recoverable, failed to make its touchdown on a platform in the Atlantic, and instead was lost during descent. Recovery Efforts For this new mission the launch provider will make another attempt to land the first stage. Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that feat. Space Race The competing companies of billionaires Bezos and Musk are engaged in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as NASA opened up proposals for its lunar exploration program, complaining that one company was falling behind schedule. The current administration has seen the government pile pressure on the agency to accelerate its timeline to send a crewed mission to the Moon amid a race with China. More rivalry between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to launch.” “More launches means greater innovation in orbit,” an ex-agency official stated. “It isn't a bad thing to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”