The Amazon founder’s space company marked a major milestone Thursday with the first test flight of its New Glenn rocket.

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Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin on Monday called off its inaugural launch of its New Glenn rocket after a number of last-minute issues – hurting the space firm in its race to compete with Elon Musk’s dominant SpaceX. The 320-foot rocket was scheduled to blast off from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 1 a.m. ET before the launch was aborted.

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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.

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin successfully launched its New Glenn rocket, named after astronaut John Glenn, from Florida's historic pad. The test flight mar

soaring from the same pad used to launch NASA’s Mariner and Pioneer spacecraft a half-century ago. Years in the making with heavy funding by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the 320-foot rocket ...

Blue Origin expects the New Glenn to provide a viable alternative to SpaceX's market-dominating Falcon family of rockets.

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.

Jeff Bezos told a media outlet he was "very optimistic" about incoming Donald Trump's administration for space projects, his company scrubbed a rocket launch.

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.