Shrugging off bad weather, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launched its powerful New Glenn rocket on its maiden flight early Thursday, lighting up a cloudy overnight sky as it climbed away from Cape Canaveral in a high-stakes bid to compete with Elon Musk's industry-leading SpaceX.

The world’s second richest man has now got a rocket in space alongside the world’s richest man, after Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin rocket entered orbit. The spacecraft, called New Glenn, passed the Kármán line—the internationally recognised boundary of space—at around 2 a.

The successful launch of Blue Origin’s massive new rocket is a key step that may allow the company to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.