Blue Origin's New Glenn finally roared into orbit in the early hours of Thursday, with SpaceX's Starship rocket set to launch hours later.

Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin joined the billionaire’s space race in earnest when its New Glenn rocket roared from a launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in the early morning hours of Jan. 16. The second stage with the Blue Ring payload successfully reached orbit. However, an attempt to land the first stage on a drone ship failed.

The successful flight to orbit of the Amazon founder’s powerful rocket suggests it could grow into a credible competitor with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Elon Musk congratulated Jeff Bezos following Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket successfully reaching orbit on its first flight, expressing his admiration on social media.

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.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk congratulated his rival Jeff Bezos on the successful maiden test-launch of his heavy-lift rocket New Glenn on Thursday.

Blue Origin successfully launched the rocket after an attempt earlier in the week was scrubbed. The flight is a crucial test of the company’s ability to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

A milestone moment for Blue Origin as New Glenn achieves orbital success, earning accolades from rival Elon Musk.

Loud cheers reverberated throughout the mission control room as the massive vehicle ascended to orbit leaving behind blue flames from its seven BE-4 engines. Blue Origin's billionaire founder Jeff Bezos, who stood right next to company CEO David Limp in the control room, shared several videos of the thrilling launch.

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin successfully launched its reusable rocket, New Glenn, on January 16 from Florida. The rocket has an experimental platform designed to host satellites or deploy them into their correct orbits.

The billionaire and his Silicon Valley associates landed in the capital and immediately moved to cut the size of the federal government, reprising the playbook he used after buying Twitter in 2022.