Shrugging off bad weather, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launched its powerful New Glenn rocket on its maiden flight early Thursday, lighting up a cloudy overnight sky as it climbed away from Cape Canaveral in a high-stakes bid to compete with Elon Musk's industry-leading SpaceX.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' space dreams are taking flight on a new level. On Thursday, Bezos' Blue Origin company launched its big rocket, called New Glenn. It lifted off at 2:30 a.m. ET from Launch Complex 36 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida,

Founded 25 years ago by Bezos, Blue Origin has been launching paying passengers to the edge of space since 2021, including himself. The short hops from Texas use smaller rockets named after the first American in space, Alan Shepard. New Glenn, which honors John Glenn, is five times taller.