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.

Blue Origin launched its massive new rocket on its first test flight Thursday, sending up a prototype satellite to orbit thousands of miles above Earth. Named after the first American to orbit Earth,

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.

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos founded the company 25 years ago. He took part in Monday’s countdown from Mission Control, located at the rocket factory just outside the gates of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Orlando, Florida.

If New Glenn can continue to demonstrate its capabilities and (more crucially) its reliability, it has the potential to take some business that SpaceX would otherwise struggle to accommodate.

Blue Origin's successful maiden launch of New Glenn rocket made billionaire Jeff Bezos hungry. He ate breakfast at a Florida diner in Florida after.

The 320-foot New Glenn rocket was initially scheduled to launch early Monday with a prototype satellite aboard.

Blue Origin launched its towering New Glenn rocket for the first time early Monday, in a crucial milestone for Jeff Bezos’ space company.

Named after the first American to orbit Earth, the New Glenn rocket blasted off from Florida following a hold-up on Monday.

The reusable spacecraft had been due to take off from Florida but the launch was halted as anomalies were detected after the countdown began

Watch live as Amazon boss Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin attempts to launch its New Glenn rocket for the first time from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Monday. It is the long-delayed debut launch of Mr Bezos's challenge to SpaceX's dominance in the satellite launch market.

Elon Musk took to X to share GIFs from the movie "Step Brothers," comparing himself and fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos to the film's two main characters after Bezos's space company, Blue Origin, successfully launched its first rocket into orbit.