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.

The billionaire space race entered a new phase today when Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin successfully launched its 320-foot-tall New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

This weekly newsletter on rockets provides definitive coverage of the global launch industry. The big news this week is the New Glenn and Starship missions.

Rough seas caused Blue Origin to hold off a planned early Friday launch attempt with is debut of New Glenn, which is now targeting early Sunday instead. SpaceX, though, managed liftoff later Friday with a booster flying for a record 25th time.

Blue Origin scrubs New Glenn's debut launch amid technical issues, keeping SpaceX's lead intact in the commercial space race.

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.

The heavy-lift New Glenn rocket reached orbit during its maiden flight on Thursday, bringing Blue Origin, a private company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, one step closer to competing with launch titan SpaceX.

A new space race is taking place and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin just made the latest move as rival Elon Musk’s SpaceX prepares for its own launch.

The Amazon founder’s space company marked a major milestone Thursday with the first test flight of its New Glenn rocket.

The uncrewed New Glenn rocket took off at 2:03 a.m. EST from Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Blue Origin said.