Bezos’s Blue Origin Set for Inaugural Launch of New Glenn Rocket, Posing Challenge to SpaceX

If successful, New Glenn will position Blue Origin to successfully compete with SpaceX for launching satellites—and eventually humans—into space.

Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos addresses the media about the New Shepard rocket booster and Crew Capsule mockup at the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo., on April 5, 2017. Isaiah J. Downing/Reuters

Former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s commercial space company Blue Origin is set to host the inaugural launch of its massive New Glenn Rocket on Jan. 12 from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

It will be the rocket’s first launch into orbit, posing one of the largest challenges to fellow billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has long dominated the U.S. commercial space industry.