Blue Origin, the rocket company Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos founded, notched one of the most substantial successes in its history on Thursday: sending a rocket to orbit.

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.

Blue Origin officials hope to send their heavy-lift New Glenn rocket on its unmanned maiden voyage into space after 1 a.m. EST, with the mission's goal being to reach orbit before returning to Earth.

Blue Origin is key to Amazon's ability to compete with SpaceX Starlink. Jeff Bezos has finally done it. He's finally reached space with an honest-to-goodness orbital-class rocket. Ten years ago, Bezos ignited a feud with SpaceX founder Elon Musk when his Blue Origin rocket company launched a suborbital New Shepard rocket to the edge of space and then landed it back on Earth.

Blue Origin will try, try again to launch its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket to orbit for the first time — if the Florida weather cooperates.

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket safely achieved orbit during its inaugural NG-1 mission, marking a significant milestone for the company and the commercial space industry.

Founded 25 years ago by Bezos, Blue Origin has been launching paying passengers to the edge of space since 2021, including himself. The short hops from Texas use smaller rockets named after the first American in space, Alan Shepard. New Glenn, which honors John Glenn, is five times taller.

Blue Origin scrubbed the planned 29th launch of its New Shepard suborbital rocket today (Jan. 28) due to uncooperative weather and a vehicle issue.

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launches suborbital New Shepard rocket from Texas Blue Origin launches a suborbital New Shepard rocket from Texas without humans aboard, carrying 30 research payloads, including some for moon-related studies.