Blue Origin's New Glenn successfully reached orbit on its first-ever flight, putting it in competition with SpaceX for heavy-lift missions.

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.

Bezos’ space company Blue Origin started at about the same time as Musk’s SpaceX but since then Musk’s firm has launched more than 400 of its Falcon 9 rockets into orbit and is testing out its giant Starship rocket which it hopes will send astronauts to the Moon and one day possibly on to Mars.

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin on Monday called off its inaugural launch of its New Glenn rocket after a number of last-minute issues – hurting the space firm in its race to compete with Elon Musk’s dominant SpaceX. The 320-foot rocket was scheduled to blast off from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 1 a.m. ET before the launch was aborted.

Jeff Bezos, the second richest man in the world, successfully blasted off a 320-foot-tall rocket ship made by his Blue Origin company from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in the early hours of the morning. It made the company the first to successfully reach orbit on its first launch of an orbital-class rocket.

Blue Origin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' space company, launched its large rocket for the first time early Thursday.

Blue Origin expects the New Glenn to provide a viable alternative to SpaceX's market-dominating Falcon family of rockets.

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launches its massive new rocket, called the New Glenn, into orbit the Earth on its first test flight. The space company attempted to land the rocket’s booster on a barrage in the Atlantic Ocean,

The Amazon boss is anticipating Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket launch from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Station

After more than a decade of development, hype and pent-up demand, Jeff Bezos’ aerospace venture Blue Origin will at long last attempt to put a rocket into orbit. New Glenn, originally intended to

Lauren Sanchez is one proud fiancee. The businesswoman shared a celebratory post after Jeff Bezos ' Blue Origin launched their first rocket into space.