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.

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

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's space company has blasted its first rocket into orbit in a bid to challenge the dominance of Elon Musk's SpaceX. The New Glenn rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 02:02 local time (07:02 GMT).

Blue Origin's New Glenn successfully reached orbit on its first-ever flight, putting it in competition with SpaceX for heavy-lift missions.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk congratulated his rival Jeff Bezos on the successful maiden test-launch of his heavy-lift rocket New Glenn on Thursday.

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 has launched its massive new rocket on its first test flight. Thursday’s liftoff from Florida carried an experiment meant to orbit thousands of miles above Earth.

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 was seen soaring into the sky above Cape Canaveral in Florida on Thursday after its earlier scheduled launch was abandoned due to a technical issue.