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

The powerful two-stage rocket’s first flight since its inaugural launch in January and the successful booster landing at sea represented key milestones for Blue Origin 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 its launch tower through clear afternoon skies in a thunder of flames and billowing clouds of vapor moments after its seven BE-4 liquid-fueled engines roared to life. The launch fo

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