Blue Origin's giant New Glenn rocket blasted off from Florida early Thursday morning on its first mission to space, an inaugural step into Earth's orbit for Jeff Bezos' space company as it aims to rival SpaceX in the satellite launch business.

Blue Origin scrubbed a planned launch of its New Shepard rocket Tuesday due to persistent cloud cover at the west Texas launch site. In a post on social media, the company said an additional issue with the rocket’s avionics was discovered during the 90-minute-plus launch hold.