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.

Blue Origin's NS-29 New Shepard rocket will launch on Jan. 28 at 11:30 a.m. EST (1630 GMT) if all goes well. Here's what to know

Blue Origin has launched its New Shepard rocket—a reusable sub-orbital rocket used for space tourism—27 times. It's named after Alan Shepard, the first American in space. Bezos flew in New Shepard on July 20, 2021, crossing the Kármán line, the dividing line between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space.

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.

KEY TAKEAWAYS Blue Origin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' space company, launched its large rocket for the first time early Thursday.After several postponed launches, the 320-foot-tall New Glenn rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 2:03 a.

New Glenn’s maiden voyage ramps up an ongoing space race between Blue Origin and SpaceX, which were respectively founded the world’s two richest people. Bezos currently has an estimated net worth of $237 billion, while Musk’s fortune stands at $428.5 billion.

Bezos’ space company Blue Origin started at about the same time as Musk’s SpaceX but since then Musk’s firm has launched more than 400 of its Falcon 9 rockets into orbit and is testing out its giant Starship rocket which it hopes will send astronauts to the Moon and one day possibly on to Mars.

The company, started by the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, reset its countdown clock repeatedly over a period of just over two hours before eventually postponing the test flight to another day.

While Jeff Bezos has spent $14 billion to achieve his first space launch, his billionaire rival has built a thriving business, mostly with other people’s money.

Jeff Bezos' spaceflight company Blue Origin on Thursday launched its new mega-rocket, called New Glenn, into orbit for the first time. The rocket lifted

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.