Just past 2 a.m. Eastern time on Jan. 16, 2025, a new rocket blasted off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. By reaching orbit, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket launch has marked a milestone for a commercial space company that has big ambitions.

One of the key questions about Blue Origin is whether it will push toward full reusability with New Glenn. In 2021, Ars first reported on an effort codenamed "Project Jarvis" to develop a stainless steel upper stage that could be reused. The company even built a test tank, although the effort was eventually shelved.

Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin joined the billionaire’s space race in earnest when its New Glenn rocket roared from a launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in the early morning hours of Jan. 16. The second stage with the Blue Ring payload successfully reached orbit. However, an attempt to land the first stage on a drone ship failed.

Once a company dabbling only in "space tourism," Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin turned into an honest-to-goodness space company last week. In the early morning hours of Jan. 16, at 2:03 a.m. ET, a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket ship lit up the skies over Cape Canaveral,

After the Jan. 16 maiden launch of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket, billionaire Jeff Bezos and crew dined at the Country Cookin' Diner in Port St. John. Bezos, who owns Blue Origin, ate the pancake combo, with two eggs over medium and a sausage patty. "He tipped well. He was very generous," waitress Pam Pollock said.

Blue Origin is key to Amazon's ability to compete with SpaceX Starlink. Jeff Bezos has finally done it. He's finally reached space with an honest-to-goodness orbital-class rocket. Ten years ago, Bezos ignited a feud with SpaceX founder Elon Musk when his Blue Origin rocket company launched a suborbital New Shepard rocket to the edge of space and then landed it back on Earth.

Blue Origin has shared a video recap of last week's maiden launch of the New Glenn, including dramatic close-up footage of the rocket leaving the launchpad.

Country Cookin Diner is owned by Jim Broome, Debby Broome and Amanda McFarland – and they have three locations across the Space Coast. The location Bezos dined is the second one they opened in 2009, the first one was in Cocoa in 2021, they said.

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

We're now ending our coverage of the New Glenn launch. It's been an overwhelming success for Blue Origin, who said prior to today that the key objective was for New Glenn to reach orbit safely ...

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.

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