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, 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.

New Glenn, a multistage rocket named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, is the first Blue Origin rocket to reach orbit. That puts the company, founded by former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, in good position to join Elon Musk’s busy SpaceX brand as a major player in the cellular satellite industry and beyond.

Named after the first American to orbit Earth, the New Glenn rocket blasted off from Florida, soaring from the same pad used to launch NASA’s Mariner and Pioneer spacecraft a half-century ago.

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.