The rocket’s first launch attempt on Monday was scrubbed due to ice build-up on the propulsion tube.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket has lifted off from Florida on its first mission into space, the first step into Earth orbit for Jeff Bezos’ space company.
Thirty stories tall, 98 meters (321.5 feet), with a multiple first stage, New Glenn launched around 2 a.m. (0700 GMT) from the Blue Origin launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in its second liftoff attempt this week .
The rocket’s first launch attempt on Monday was scrubbed due to ice build-up on the propulsion tube.
On Thursday, the company did not cite any pre-launch issues.
The mission — a decade-long, multibillion-dollar project — involved landing the booster’s first stage in the Atlantic Ocean while the rocket’s second stage continues into orbit.
So far, Blue Origin has only used its rockets for suborbital space tourism.
“What we’re most nervous about is the booster landing,” Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who founded Blue Origin in 2000, told Reuters news agency in an interview before the launch.
New Glenn’s development spanned three Blue Origin executives and faced numerous delays as Elon Musk’s SpaceX grew into an industrial powerhouse with its reusable Falcon 9, the world’s most active rocket.
