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.

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

Blue Origin successfully launched the rocket after an attempt earlier in the week was scrubbed. The flight is a crucial test of the company’s ability to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

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.

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.

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

Tesla CEO and Amazon founder vie for dominance of satellite launch market and could influence Nasa plans to return to Moon

The successful flight to orbit of the Amazon founder’s powerful rocket suggests it could grow into a credible competitor with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Lauren Sánchez shared a sweet post celebrating Jeff Bezos and the successful launch of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket this week.

New Glenn is capable of carrying 50 tons (45 metric tons) of payload to low Earth orbit (LEO). SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket, which also features reusable first stage boosters, can lift around 70 tons (64 metric tons) to LEO.

Jensen Huang is expected to miss the ceremony, while Apple’s Tim Cook, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Tesla’s Elon Musk are attending.