Named after the first American to orbit Earth, the New Glenn rocket blasted off from Florida, soaring from the same pad used to launch NASA’s Mariner and Pioneer spacecraft a half-century ago.

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.

After years of delays, the billionaire’s Blue Origin space company launched its New Glenn rocket early Thursday.

Blue Origin scrubbed the debut launch of its New Glenn rocket on Monday over a vehicle subsection issue. If Elon Musk had his way, he would also scrap the company’s Blue Moon from landing NASA astronauts on the lunar surface in 2030.

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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.

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.

"My own opinion is that we should do both – we need to go to the moon and we should go to Mars," Bezos said, when asked if he was concerned about changes to NASA's moon program. Jeff Bezos speaks about his flight on Blue Origin’s New Shepard into space ...

Jeff Bezos does not think SpaceX CEO Elon Musk ... tasked with eventually launching the company's moon lander for NASA, was due early on Monday after several delays, but was postponed for ...

Jeff Bezos does not think SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will use his close ties with Donald Trump to undercut Bezos' rival space company Blue Origin.

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.

Jeff Bezos on Sunday said he trusts Elon Musk will ... raising industry concerns of a major shakeup to NASA's space exploration program. "My own opinion is that we should do both - we need to ...