Jeff Bezos’ space flight company Blue Origin has launched a new mega-rocket, called New Glenn, into orbit for the first time.

The rocket TAKEN at 2:03AM ET on January 16 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and crossed the official border into space a few minutes later. Shortly thereafter, the second stage burn puts the upper part of the rocket into orbit around the Earth.

While this is the rocket’s inaugural launch, many things have happened, and the company says reaching orbit safely is its main goal. But the first stage of the rocket exploded on return to Earth as Blue Origin tried to land that section on a drone ship in the ocean. The company hopes to relaunch this spring and plans as many as eight New Glenn launched this year.

“I am very proud that New Glenn reached orbit on its first attempt,” said Dave Limp, former Amazon executive and CEO of Blue Origin, in a statement. “We know that landing our booster, ‘So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance,’ on the first try is an ambitious goal. We will learn a lot from today and try again on our next one launching this spring.Thanks to everyone at Team Blue for this amazing milestone.

The successful launch begins a new era for Blue Origin, which until now has been stuck with a rocket (called New Shepard) that was not designed to go into orbit, limiting its usefulness. Blue Origin needs New Glenn to succeed in order to build a strong launch business to take on Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has dominated the industry in recent years.

first revealed in 2016New Glenn stands 320 feet tall and is powered by seven BE-4 engines, also designed by Blue Origin. The company initially hoped to launch the mega-rocket as early as 2021. But the expensive development process took longer than expected. Eventually, Blue Origin spent time locked in legal battles with NASA and SpaceX excess of launch contracts, and accused cutting corners on safety through many employees.

Blue Origin now hopes to use New Glenn to launch satellites and other spacecraft, including those it is designing for the Moon. The company has contracts with NASA, the Space Force, Amazon’s Project Kuiper, and others.

It’s also hoping for a one-day launch astronauts on the Moon as part of NASA’s Artemis project. That said, NASA’s focus is constantly changing in the political winds, and Musk — who has built a deep relationship with incoming president Donald Trump — has SAYS the “Moon is a distraction.” Bezos told the press this week that he thinks there is room for “more winners” in the industry.