The giant New Glenn rocket from Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin launched from Florida on its debut mission for paying customers on Thursday, sending two NASA satellites toward Mars while also nailing the landing of its reusable booster for the first time.

The powerful two-stage rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, marking the first mission of any kind flown by Blue Origin since the inaugural launch of a New Glenn vehicle, NG-1, in January 2025 .

With Thursday's launch, Blue Origin has delivered into space its first science payload for NASA or any customer, a milestone for the company in its quest to compete on a more equal footing with Elon Musk's SpaceX, the world's leading rocket launch service.

A live Blue Origin webcast showed the rocket ascending from

See Full Page