🔗 Share this article Jeff Bezos' Space Firm's Latest Rocket Launch Delayed Because of Poor Weather Conditions The aerospace company, founded by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the highly anticipated liftoff of its powerful launch vehicle on Sunday due to adverse meteorological factors at Cape Canaveral. Launch Delay Causes Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground led to early setbacks, then came thick clouds as the narrow time frame for launch closed, leaving managers to push back the rocket’s planned second mission. Competition between Blue Origin and Musk's space company has been intensifying in recent months. New Launch Window To ease traffic in the skies during the government funding gap, the Federal Aviation Administration is limiting private space launches starting the beginning of the week. Following the cancellation of the launch, Blue Origin said on Sunday evening that, working alongside the regulatory body, it was aiming for a new try as soon as Wednesday within a window of 2.50pm to 4.17pm EST. Mission Objectives Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will carry NASA’s Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, in an effort to examine the Martian atmospheric past 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 successful. Previous Flight The rocket's first launch in January was considered a achievement, as its payload reached space and completed experiments. But its first-stage booster, which was meant to be recoverable, did not stick its landing on a platform in the Atlantic, and ended up destroyed during the return phase. Landing Attempts For this new mission Blue Origin will try once more to recover the booster stage. Until now, only Musk’s company SpaceX has managed that accomplishment. Space Race The competing companies of tycoons Bezos and Musk are engaged in a private sector space competition that recently escalated, as the space agency opened up bids for its lunar exploration program, noting that SpaceX was falling behind schedule. Donald Trump’s second term has involved the administration pile pressure on the agency to accelerate its timeline to launch astronauts to the Moon in competition against China. More rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin could “give us more choices with regard to launch.” “More launches means greater innovation in orbit,” an ex-agency official stated. “It can’t be a bad thing to have Blue Origin, even trailing behind.”