Just past 2 a.m. Eastern time on Jan. 16, 2025, a new rocket blasted off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. By reaching orbit, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket launch has marked a milestone for a commercial space company that has big ambitions.

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.

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.

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.

The successful launch of Blue Origin’s massive new rocket is a key step that may allow the company to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

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 US space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos in 2000, made its maiden voyage into orbital space Thursday with its brand-new rocket, New Glenn.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (and many others) posted pics of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, named for astronaut John Glenn, on social after liftoff.

The Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin sent its massive new rocket into ... The seven-engine, 320-foot New Glenn rocket — named for late astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit the planet ...

New Glenn is named after the first American to orbit Earth, John Glenn. It is five times taller than Blue Origin‘s New Shepard rocket that carries paying customers to the edge of space from Texas.

Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin launched its New Glenn rocket into orbit early Thursday, in a critical milestone that comes some 25 years after the billionaire founded the company with the goal of reducing the cost of access to space.

Blue Origin successfully launched its two-stage heavy-lift New Glenn rocket on its unmanned maiden voyage into space early Thursday, achieving the mission's primary goal of reaching orbit.