By Steve Gorman and Joey Roulette

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) -The Blue Origin space venture of billionaire Jeff Bezos launched its giant New Glenn rocket from Florida on Thursday on its debut flight for paying customers, carrying two satellites on their way to Mars in the company’s first NASA-scale science mission.

The powerful two-stage rocket, standing 32 stories tall, blasted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, marking the first mission of any kind flown by Blue Origin since the inaugural launch of a New Glenn vehicle, NG-1, in January 2025.

A live Blue Origin webcast showed the rocket ascending from its launch tower through clear afternoon skies in a thunder of flames and billowing clouds of vapor moments after its seven BE-4 liquid-fueled engines roared to life. The

See Full Page