Named after the first American to orbit Earth, the New Glenn rocket blasted off from Florida, soaring from the same pad used to launch NASA’s Mariner and Pioneer spacecraft a half-century ago.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (and many others) posted pics of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, named for astronaut John Glenn, on social after liftoff.

Blue Origin's successful maiden launch of New Glenn rocket made billionaire Jeff Bezos hungry. He ate breakfast at a Space Coast diner in Florida after

Bezos’ space company Blue Origin started at about the same time as Musk’s SpaceX but since then Musk’s firm has launched more than 400 of its Falcon 9 rockets into orbit and is testing out its giant Starship rocket which it hopes will send astronauts to the Moon and one day possibly on to Mars.

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.

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.

Thirty storeys tall with a reusable first stage filled with liquid oxygen and methane, New Glenn launched around 2 a.m. ET from Blue Origin's launchpad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Blue Origin called off the debut launch of its massive new rocket early Monday because of technical trouble.

Jeffrey Preston Bezos is an American businessman best known as the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon.

Jeff Bezos’s space company Blue Origin postponed the inaugural launch of its new rocket early Monday, after running into technical problems. Blue Origin had planned to attempt to blast off its New Glenn rocket from a site in Florida.

EDT Thursday, Jan. Blue Origin, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, launched its 320-foot-tall New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral

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.