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.

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.

Granted, Blue Origin poses an even bigger threat to Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and Boeing (NYSE: BA) and their United Launch Alliance (ULA) joint venture, which charges $110 million for Vulcan rocket launches. Airbus ' (OTC: EADSY) Arianespace charges $77 million for an Ariane 62 launch, and is probably worried, too.

If New Glenn can continue to demonstrate its capabilities and (more crucially) its reliability, it has the potential to take some business that SpaceX would otherwise struggle to accommodate.

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' spaceflight company Blue Origin on Thursday launched its new mega-rocket, called New Glenn, into orbit for the first time. The rocket lifted

After abruptly calling off its first launch attempt in the early hours of Monday morning, Blue Origin notched a historic success with its first orbital rocket.

The company, started by the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, reset its countdown clock repeatedly over a period of just over two hours before eventually postponing the test flight to another day.

Thirty storeys tall with a reusable first stage filled with liquid oxygen and methane, New Glenn launched around 2 a.m. ET from Blue Origin's launchpad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket safely achieved orbit during its inaugural NG-1 mission, marking a significant milestone for the company and the commercial space industry.

Blue Origin, the spaceflight company owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, successfully launched its New Glenn rocket but things didn't go totally according to plan

Jeff Bezos' company Blue Origin launched its New Glenn mega-rocket for the first time. The milestone is a leap for reusable rocketry.