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.

Blue Origin successfully launched the rocket after an attempt earlier in the week was scrubbed. The flight is a crucial test of the company’s ability to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

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.

Tesla CEO and Amazon founder vie for dominance of satellite launch market and could influence Nasa plans to return to Moon

Years in the making with heavy funding by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the 320-foot rocket carried an experimental platform designed to host satellites or release them into their proper orbits.

Blue Origin's giant New Glenn rocket blasted off from Florida Thursday morning (Jan 16) It was its first mission to space and a giant leap for Jeff Bezos' company, which aims to rival Elon Musk's SpaceX in the satellite launch business New Glenn,

Elon Musk congratulated Jeff Bezos following Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket successfully reaching orbit on its first flight, expressing his admiration on social media.

Blue Origin aborted the first launch attempt due to technical issues, but this Thursday, they successfully conducted their first test from Cape Canaveral. They achieved the main goal of orbiting safely but were unable to recover the reusable rocket booster on a maritime platform.

The New Glenn rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a test flight that will take it high above Earth before returning to the planet's atmosphere for a landing