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

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 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 will try, try again to launch its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket to orbit for the first time — if the Florida weather cooperates.

New Glenn lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida just after 2 a.m., carrying a payload for the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit.

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

Founded 25 years ago by Bezos, Blue Origin has been launching paying passengers to the edge of space since 2021, including himself. The short hops from Texas use smaller rockets named after the first American in space, Alan Shepard. New Glenn, which honors John Glenn, is five times taller.

Blue Origin scrubbed the planned 29th launch of its New Shepard suborbital rocket today (Jan. 28) due to uncooperative weather and a vehicle issue.