Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin successfully launched its New Glenn heavy lift rocket into orbit for the first time early on Thursday, notching up a key milestone for the company that could allow it to enter a market currently dominated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 36 from the Kennedy Space Center ... [+]
The launch occurred at 2:03 a.m. EST from NASA’s historic Complex 36—which Blue Origin spent more than $1 billion to rebuild—at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Shortly after its launch the second stage of the rocket managed to successfully reach orbit.
Blue Origin, however, failed to meet its secondary goal of successfully recovering the reusable booster stage of the rocket—which was supposed to land on a barge floating in the Atlantic.
This is a developing story.