🔗 Share this article Jeff Bezos' Space Firm's Second Rocket Launch Postponed Because of Poor Atmospheric Situation The aerospace company, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, had to postpone the highly anticipated launch of its powerful launch vehicle on the weekend due to adverse weather factors at the Florida launch site. Mission Postponement Reasons Precipitation and a technical problem on the ground led to early setbacks, then came thick clouds as the 88-minute launch window ended, forcing mission controllers to push back the vehicle's upcoming flight. Competition between Blue Origin and Musk's space company has been heating up in the past few months. Rescheduled Attempt To relieve traffic in the skies amid the government funding gap, the aviation regulator is limiting commercial rocket liftoffs starting Monday. After scrubbing the mission, Blue Origin said late Sunday that, in coordination with the regulatory body, it was targeting a new try as early as Wednesday within a time slot of afternoon hours Eastern Standard time. Launch Goals Upon successful liftoff, the 322-foot tall launch vehicle will carry the US space agency's Escapade twin spacecraft to Mars, in an effort to study the Martian atmospheric past with the long-term goal of sending people there. Blue Origin’s launch will also act as a crucial trial of whether it can achieve booster recovery, which would represent a major advancement for the company if accomplished. Previous Flight New Glenn’s inaugural flight in January was marked as a success, as its payload reached space and successfully performed tests. But its main rocket section, which was designed as recoverable, did not stick its touchdown on a ocean-based target in the ocean, and instead was lost during descent. Landing Attempts For this new mission Blue Origin will try once more to recover the booster stage. Thus far, only Musk’s company SpaceX has achieved that feat. Space Race Rival firms of billionaires Bezos and Musk are engaged in a commercial space race that recently escalated, as the space agency opened up proposals for its lunar exploration program, noting that one company was lagging behind. Donald Trump’s second term has involved the administration push the agency to speed up its timeline to launch astronauts to the Moon amid a race with the Asian nation. More rivalry between the two firms could “expand our options with regard to liftoff.” “More launches means greater innovation in orbit,” an ex-agency official said. “It can’t be a bad thing to have the competitor, even trailing behind.”