While Jeff Bezos has spent $14 billion to achieve his first space launch, his billionaire rival has built a thriving business, mostly with other people’s money.

Blue Ghost and New Glenn started off the year right. Many more launches are on the way, and many can be watched online.

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.

Watch as Amazon boss Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin attempted to launch its New Glenn rocket for the first time from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Monday, 13 January. It was to be the long-delayed debut launch of Mr Bezos's challenge to SpaceX's dominance in the satellite launch market.

Despite the failure, Elon Musk appeared to see the bright side, posting: "Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!"

Blue Origin, the rocket company Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos founded, notched one of the most substantial successes in its history on Thursday: sending a rocket to orbit.

Hours after Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin nailed its first-ever orbital mission, SpaceX seized back the spotlight on Thursday as its latest test of Starship, its gargantuan next-generation megarocket, ended with the upper stage dramatically disintegrating over the Atlantic.

The billionaire space race entered a new phase today when Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin successfully launched its 320-foot-tall New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

Project Kuiper, as it is known, will see Amazon launch thousands of satellites into low Earth orbit to form a constellation similar to SpaceX’s Starlink internet network. SpaceX has already deployed more than 7,000 Starlink satellites, which deliver high-speed internet to 95 countries around the world.

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.

Elon Musk took to X to share GIFs from the movie "Step Brothers," comparing himself and fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos to the film's two main characters after Bezos's space company, Blue Origin, successfully launched its first rocket into orbit.